


Something Quiet

by lemonvenom35



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1980s, Canon Compliant, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Original Character(s), Second War with Voldemort, Slow Burn, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonvenom35/pseuds/lemonvenom35
Summary: A work in progress. Elijah Summers is a student at Hogwarts starting in 1985. It is long story of love, family secrets, and adventure.*** Draws much inspiration from All The Young Dudes, as well as inspiration from music (This will be noticed in later chapter titles)Mostly canon compliant - except for the creation of pure-blood families outside of 'sacred 28'.A select amount of characters are based on real life people, but all names have been changed.Please ask any questions and please give any sort of feedback!





	1. The Bright Blue Ribbon

_July 24th, 1985_

__

It was exactly one calendar month before the young Mr. Summers’ eleventh birthday. The sun shone brightly on the white mailbox in front of his home on Poplar Court in Corby. As the child walked outside, the harsh sun beat down on his face, diminishing his boyish pride. He quickly shielded the sun from his view and feverishly opened the mailbox, checking to see if the post had come yet. He knew the chance was slim, as it was only nine in the morning, and the post usually came in the afternoon. Yet he would check the mailbox nearly ten whole times until he retired to bed, hoping that if he took a nap he would skip the unpleasant anxieties that come from waiting for a letter.

After what felt like years of lying in bed, still as one could be, he finally fell asleep. By this time it was one hour past noon. He slept through the next two hours before jolting awake. He knew that the post _had_ to have come by now. The door swung open as he ran into the yard, and the rays of the sun quickly started warming his thick brown hair. He opened the mailbox, only to be disappointed once again. His heart sunk. _How much longer for the stupid post!?_ He thought. Just then he heard a horridly loud but familiar screech. He looked up at the blinding sun, only to be caught in the shadow of a large brown owl swooping downs towards him. As a normal child might react in fear, Elijah gleefully yanked a letter from the claws of the bird. 

“I forgot!” He said out loud, his words spilling from his smile. “It’s owl delivered,” he said quietly to himself, still smiling. He thought for a moment, wondering if he should wait until his mother and father got back from work. But this was a temptation he could not keep himself from, he ran into the house, forgetting to close the door behind him and went into the room of his younger brother. “It came! It came!” His brother, Kellen, knew exactly what he meant by this. 

“Open it!” Kellen said, sharing the excitement. Elijah admired the cursive letters on the front spelling his name in enchanted ink. _Elijah Summers_. He had been waiting for this day his whole life. He turned the letter around and broke the seal with his thumb and index finger, his hands were trembling. The paper he retrieved from the broken envelope looked like a normal off-white hand-written letter, but it felt heavier than any normal paper. He scanned the letter instead of reading it straight through, only noting the words: _pleased, Hogwarts, 1 September_ , and _McGonagall_. Seeing this confirmed what he already knew to be true, and caused his joy to spill out of him. Both him and Kellen started jumping up and down like giddy school children - which is exactly what they were. 

Both his mother and father went to Hogwarts. He had known that he was most likely also going to Hogwarts as well, but he knew about squibs and it’s not as though he belonged to a pure-blood family, so occasionally he doubted that he would receive an acceptance letter. Elijah thought about all of the stories that his parents had told him when he was younger, and how he dreamed of that life for himself. He did not know much specifics about Hogwarts, other than the houses - which he couldn’t remember most of the names of. He knew his parents were both in Hufflepuff, but were two years apart. His mother studied the practice of magical aid, and was a nurse at one of the wizard hospitals near Godric’s Hollow. His father trained to be an architect and was helping to design additions in the Ministry of Magic.

Waiting for his parents to come home from work was as painful as waiting for the letter. They ended work at around four, but didn’t get home until half an hour later usually. As the clock rolled around to a quarter past four, Elijah decided to wait for them in the driveway. His brother joined him, sitting at the top of the driveway sitting criss-cross while Elijah read over his letter again and again until he nearly memorized it. 

As his parents, Henry and Elizabeth pulled into the driveway, they were greeted to their two sons jumping up while inaudibly shouting and pointing at a letter displayed above their eldest’s head. Their faces lit up and they quickly turned the car off and got out to celebrate. 

“Elijah Henry!” His mother said. “We are _so_ proud of you! We _knew_ you were going to get a letter soon, and we know you’ll make a fantastic young wizard!” 

As they retreated indoors, his father spoke, “That reminds me! I’ve got a gift for you!” He went into his room, and the three remaining in the living room could hear the sounds of him ruffling through his drawers, only to end with an “Ah! Here it is!” quietly muttered to himself. He emerged with a small black box, wrapped in a bright blue ribbon. Initially, Elijah suspected it was a jewelry box. His suspicions were confirmed as he unraveled the bow and removed the lid from the box, revealing a necklace with a strange pendant. The chain of the necklace was a very shiny silver, which matched well with the beetle pendant hanging on the chain. Upon closer examination, he noticed that the completely silver beetle was adorned with two eyes made up of green crystals. He looked up at his dad, confused but appreciative.

“Emeralds.” His father said.

“Oh!” Elijah still looked confused.

“This necklace was made in the 18th century to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the establishment of Hogwarts.” His father took it from his hands and held it up by the chain, letting the silver beetle dangle in the air. “They made one for each of the houses, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. This was the one made for Slytherin. As you can tell, the eyes are green.” He pointed to the small jewels encrusted on the charm. “My grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather won it, since he was the student in Slytherin who received the highest marks. He has passed it down to his first born son since then.”

Elijah took the necklace back from his dad and put around his own neck. Just like the letter from Hogwarts, the necklace felt much heavier than it looked. While toying with the pendant, his father pulled his camera out of his bedroom, setting it up on the ledge above the fireplace. His family gathered around him while the timer counted down to zero, snapping a magical photo of their family on the best day of his life.

* * *  
The days between the 24th of July and the beginning of the school year at Hogwarts stretched longer than Elijah thought they could. With too many hours in the day and not nearly enough to do, he found himself reading as much as he could about the school, hoping to get a better idea about the year in store for him. 

He finally memorized the names of the houses - no longer referring to them by the animals he knew represented each house. He always knew Hufflepuff though, of course. Hufflepuff was his favorite - only because it was the one he knew best, and his parents were both sorted into this house. When the time came, Elijah felt that he would have no real preference about which house he was sorted in. He was just happy to be there no matter what. 

His mother agreed to take him to Diagon Alley the week before September started, so he could get all of the necessary school books and equipment for his various classes.

“Are you excited dear?” His mother asked. The both of them were sitting on the couch, looking through old memory books during his parent’s time at Hogwarts.

“I’ve never been looking forward to something so much.” He flipped the page to see a picture of a few students standing in front of a rustic fireplace burning green flames. He recognized his mother standing on the left, second to last. In the middle was an older looking fellow - most reasonably a professor. Below, written in scribbled cursive ‘ _Slug Club 1968_ ’. “Slug club?” he looked up confused. “What’s that?”

“Oh! It was a group of students that our Potions professor, Professor Slughorn, would invite for dinners sometimes.” Elizabeth smiled, reminiscing on the forgotten memories of her school days. 

“Was father in the ‘Slug Club’?” 

“Merlin no!” She busted out laughing. “I should have mentioned it was for good students,” he laughing subsided and she continued, “your father was too focused on having fun than classes. We still love him though.” 

“Oh,” Elijah said, somewhat disappointedly. “So who are these people?” He could count four girls and three boys all wearing matching gray sweater vests. The three boys were sitting on the couch in front of the girls and the professor, with their left legs crossed over their right. 

“Well…” she started, clearly trying her best to remember. “This here on the couch,” she pointed at the boy on the left, “his name is Thomas Holtrain, and in the middle is Jaime Kladsor, and this is Mark Inkwood. Mark and I dated for a bit, he was a nice boy. Don’t tell your father I said that though.”

“And who are the girls?”

She pointed at the girl to the left of her, “This is Allison Owens, er–Warner. I forgot she got married to Craig. He was in your father’s class, a good fellow. They have three girls, one is about your age I believe. I haven’t seen her in years. We used to be really good friends,” her expression softened. “With her too,” she pointed at the blonde haired girl to the right of Professor Slughorn. “Her name is Ann Bradshaw, it used to be Afirevic but she got married to a man named,” she thought for a second. “Robb,” she exclaimed. “I remember going to their wedding a long time ago. It was a wonderful thing. Ann, Allison, and I were quite the trio I must say” 

“Who is she,” he pointed to the girl on the right at the end. Her smile was very illuminating, and she was the first person Elijah noticed in the portrait.

“Alice,” she said gravely. “Poor thing,” she said under her breath. He made a mental note to ask about her in the future, he wouldn’t want to dampen the mood now. 

“Why don’t you still talk to your old friends from Hogwarts?”

“Well,” she paused, “Elijah, your father and I needed to keep our distance from the magic world for a while, for you and Kellen.” Again, Elijah wanted to pry to get a more satisfactory answer but he knew that now wasn’t the best time.

As she kept flipping through the pages, he dreamed about shouting with friends at a Quidditch game, and drinking Butterbeer, and winning the House Cup like his parents once did. He hoped that these memories would one day continue, and not just lay stagnant in a memory book hidden in the back of a cupboard.


	2. FIRST YEAR: Grotto the Cat

_August 24th, 1985_

The day had finally come. It was his eleventh birthday and was standing in the middle of the legendary Diagon Alley somewhere in the depths of London. He had remembered being there before, but he was too young to remember any specific details of the place. He looked around, unable to take in all of the curious wonders occurring in every direction all at once. 

First his parents took him to Ollivanders to get his wand. After trying out several wands, Elijah ended up with a truly stunning wand. At fifteen inches in length, he received a wand with dragon essence and made of redwood. The tip to the handle was pitch black, while the handle was a blood red, with cross hatching along the length of the wood, and an elegantly cut handle. 

While marvelling at his new wand, he followed his parents into Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions to get his required school robes. His parents did not have much wizard money since they have spent most of the years in the muggle world, but had enough to get Elijah new robes, and used books from Flourish and Blotts. While eating at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour and skimming through _A History of Magic_ , his father encouraged him to eat quickly as they had one more stop. 

Any normal parent would have surprised him, but Elijah’s parents knew better than that. They knew he hated surprises so they decided to bring him to The Magical Menagerie to pick out a pet. After almost half an hour of interacting with the different owls, toads, rats, and cats that filled the shop, he decided to pick a sleek grey cat which he named Grotto. 

While his parents were busy talking to old classmates that had children of their own also shopping for school supplies, Elijah sat on a chair just outside of the Quidditch supply shop. Grotto was lying on his lap, and he gently stroked his velvet fur. He had moved on to skimming his potions book, and knew he was going to try to read through most of the books before he went to Hogwarts next week. The book discussed different potions in alphabetical order and Elijah was intently studying the Caxambu Style Borborygmus Potion when a young girl came up to him.

“Is that your cat?” She asked. Elijah looked up from his book, and examined the girl for a moment. She had medium length brown hair, and was wearing a yellow and black flannel t-shirt over a pink t-shirt. She had very large glasses that framed her face well, and she was standing on her tippy toes trying to get a better look at Grotto. 

“Clearly,” he said laughing. He realized that he just sounded very condescending and quickly tried to make it up. “Do you want to pet him?” He set his book down on the table with the rest and picked up the cat and offered him to the girl. 

“Absolutely!” she said, accepting the cat. “What’s his name?”

“His name is Grotto,” Elijah said, putting his finger up to his whiskers, and softly rubbing his head.

“And what is _your_ name?”

“Elijah, and yourself?”

“Sophia.” She set Grotto down on the ground. He quickly jumped on the table and sat on the books. “You’re a first year then?”

“Yes, are you as well?”

“No, I am a second year. Are you excited for classes to start?” Suddenly, his perception of her completely changed. Now she was older, and presumably smarter than him.

“Indescribably.” He pointed at the books under his cat. “Hopefully I’ll be able to read most of the books in the next week. I’ve got nothing better to do.” 

“ _A History of Magic_ is my favorite, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too.”

“What house are you in?”

“Hufflepuff,” she said with enamored pride.

“Oh cool! Both my parents were in Hufflepuff, so maybe I’ll be in it too.”

“Maybe! My parents are muggles so I wouldn’t know anything about genetics and being sorted into a house,” she laughed. 

“Wait, both of your parents are muggles?”

“Yeah, they didn’t know a thing about magic until I got my letter a year ago. But they are very happy about it. They still don’t know much about magic even with what I’ve told them. They are somewhere around here. Probably in the pet store or getting ice cream.”

“I didn’t know muggles could come to Diagon Alley.”

“They can, if they have a child who goes to Hogwarts.”

“Oh I see.” His parents walked up to him and Sophia, having had enough social interaction to last the rest of the year, they asked if he was ready to go. “I’ll see you at Hogwarts Sophia, it was nice to meet you!”

* * *

The final days in the Summers household before Elijah left to Hogwarts were plain and uneventful. The young boy spent most afternoons reading _A History of Magic_ , and Sophia was right, it was his favorite. He read most of his charms book, however he was disappointed that he could not use his wand yet, as students were not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts until they were of age. 

He wrote flashcards for various potion ingredients, occasionally stopping to find whatever nook or cranny that Grotto was hiding in so he could pet him. Grotto and Elijah quickly became the best of friends, as they both enjoyed each other's calm demeanor.

On the night before the first of September, Elijah had tidied all of his belongings that he would take with him to Hogwarts into two packed suitcases. He had a folded photograph of his family that his father took the day he received his Hogwarts letter.

If Elijah was honest with himself, he was scared to go to Hogwarts. Obviously he was extremely excited as well, but he had never been on his own before. He was overwhelmingly worried that he would not make friends. His family had been out of the ‘magical loop’ for quite some time now, and he supposed that most students had made friends already. Unless, however, there were more students like Sophia - who had never known about magic until they got their letter.

In just one day, he would be sorted into his house, and would meet his housemates. Hopefully they liked him. Elijah walked into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror.  
His reflection was pale, and tired. The ends of his fingers felt the bags under his eyes. One hand rose to run through his hair as the other held his hip and he yawned. He was tired, but there was no way he could fall asleep with all of the energy and anxiety coursing through his body. His caramel colored hair and light freckles started to dance and swirl after rubbing his eyes for nearly two minutes. As the drowsiness set in, he crawled into bed, setting his alarm for eight.

In his dream, he was on a chair in front of all the Hogwarts students. The black cotton robe he was wearing kept him warm. The dining hall was lit by thousands of singular candles floating above their heads. He looked above him and saw the night sky, and it looked as if he could make out the constellation _Sagitta_ \- one that he had recently learned in his required book for his astronomy class called _Stars, Planets, and Cosmic Magic Volume One_. 

As he gazed on at the mass of students before him, he noticed Professor McGonagall ready to place a large brown hat on his head. He of course knew this was the Sorting Hat, from skimming the _First Year Essentials_ handbook he bought in preparation for going to Hogwarts. 

The sorting hat yelled out a name, however Elijah could not hear it as it felt muffled. He looked up at McGonagall, and she looked down at him, her lips pursed. He looked at the crowd before him for an answer, but no one was cheering.

After sitting confused for what felt like forever, he was forced out of the chair and told to take a seat with his new house. He stumbled around, not knowing where to go, and with no offering him any assistance he ran out of the dining hall.

Elijah gasped for air, sitting upright in his bed. He looked over at the window. Still dark outside. He then checked the clock next to him, squinting to make out the hour hand. _Five?_ He thought. _You’ve got to be joking_. With the new found adrenaline pumping through his body from his nightmare he knew it would be impossible to fall back asleep. So there he lied awake, for three hours until the sun rose across the small town of Corby.


	3. FIRST YEAR: Four Seat Cabin

_ September 1st, 1985 _

The Summers family was running late, but that was no surprise. Despite his attempts, Elijah could not get his family to hurry up, and he worried that his attempts only made them take longer. 

“We’ve got to go  _ now _ .” Elijah was biting his nails, which wasn’t a usual habit, he only did it to show how visibly nervous he was. The relentless foot tapping was what led his father to snap.

“They’re not going to leave without you, Elijah.” His father said this after spitting out the left over slosh of water and toothpaste into the sink. He put the toothbrush in its holder, then lightly stepped on his son’s tapping foot, while gesturing to Elijah to get him to leave the room. 

In the kitchen, his mother was brewing a pot of coffee. His mother, who was patiently waiting for the coffee to come out, caught sight of her boy. Dressed in a red button up shirt, and khaki pants. His hair was short, but long enough to be combed over to the right side of his head. 

“My boy’s all grown up,” she said, smiling.

“I’m eleven mom. And there is  _ no _ time for sentimentals! We are going to be late!” He started pacing around the room, looking at the map his parents got him for Christmas. “It’s going to take us four hours to get to London, and then from there-”

“Honey, look at me,” his mother took the map from him, starting to fold it. “We’ve driven to London before. We are gonna get you there okay?”

“I’m just saying-”

“Yes, yes I know you are excited. You should be.” She looked into his blue eyes. “We are gonna leave soon okay hon?”

“Okay mum.”

Just then, the pair heard the sound of the shower starting. Elijah rolled his eyes and groaned.

* * * 

Elijah tried to enjoy the car ride down as much as possible, as he knew this would be the last time he’d see his family until the holidays. He played old fashioned wizard games with Kellen in the car - the games his dad taught him when he was younger and when his parents still talked about magic.

When the family arrived at Kings Cross Station, everything began to feel real. More real than it had when he got the letter from Hogwarts, and still more real than when he was shopping in Diagon Alley. In no less than half an hour, he’d be sitting in a trolly with four other witches or wizards and he’d be on his way to Hogwarts. 

After all of the reading he had done, nothing prepared him for the barrier at Platform 9 ¾. He was slightly frustrated that he was already clueless about something and he wasn’t even at Hogwarts yet. 

“You just go in. Confidently.” His mother said.  _ There has to be more to it _ , he thought. His father walked through the wall with no problem.  _ Huh _ .

He gathered up what little courage he had in him, and simply walked into the wall, his luggage cart before him.

Just like walking through an open door, there he was. The rustling and bustling of the platform was overwhelming at first, but he quickly acclimated. He saw hundreds of people. There were also owls in cages, cats, rats, a few dogs, and an iguana. It was nothing short of magical.

As he looked on at the children saying goodbye to their mothers, fathers, and siblings, he began to feel a twinge of sadness. He let go of his luggage cart and hugged his father. Only moments later, his mother and brother filed in. He hugged Kellen, and then his mother - decidedly hugging her the longest.

“I love you guys.” If he could cry in front of other people, he would right now. Instead Elijah was going to save it for the next time he was alone. 

“We love you too buddy,” his father said, crouching down to his height and putting an arm around him. “You’re going to be great.”

“You’re a smart kid, Elijah. Keep out of trouble, and be safe, do you hear me?” His mother was trying her best not to cry.

“Absolutely.” He stood for a moment, awkwardly. Not wanting to seem too excited to leave. He hugged them all one last time. Feeling one of his parents clutch the back of his shirt. He felt safe. 

The hug ended and he looked at them and sighed.

“Go on then!” Elizabeth laughed. “We will see you at Christmas, okay?”

“Christmas,” he repeated. 

“Have fun, Elijah,” his father winked at him. As he started walking to the entrance of the train he heard his mother call “Have fun,  _ and  _ stay safe!” He looked back at her and smiled. 

While walking up the steps into the train, he decided not to look back again. He didn’t want them to think he was going to miss them  _ too  _ much, or else they might make him stay.

He felt the steam coming from under the train as he boarded, which was quickly subdued by the nice cool air conditioning on the train. He walked down the first year trolley, choosing an empty cabin that had windows that faced the platform. 

There he saw his family, now interacting with a new family. A woman, around his mother’s age with straight dirty blonde hair and glasses, and a gentleman with glasses, and a small girl with blonde hair. He couldn’t make out much detail since the window was glassy and it was hard to see through, but he assumed it was some sort of reunion. Just then another woman met them, hugging his mom and the other woman. Maybe those were the two girls in the Slug Club photo. 

Elijah sat and appreciated the silence of the cabin, knowing full well that it was soon to end. As the trolley started filling with kids that knew each other, he collected a few stragglers.

“Is this taken?” A young girl, with blonde hair, and a bright smile. She spoke loudly and confidently, bubbling with kindness.

“Not at all, come in,” he said, trying to match the kindness in her voice and only half-way succeeding. 

“Can I sit in here?” It was a small boy, with dark brown hair that fell in his eyes. He was nearly the exact opposite of the girl. He spoke softly, and directly, but he maintained the confidence.

“D’you think you can make some room for me?” The third, and hopefully last student (since the cabin was now full) paralleled the first girl’s energy, except with a little touch of boyish charm. He had short wavy blond hair that was combed over to the side like Elijah’s hair, except his hair was much more thick. He was pale, but had big dimples that appeared when he smiled.

Elijah sat in the corner by the window, next to the brown haired boy, and now across from the blonde haired girl and boy. 

“Sorry, I’m Gideon,” he smiled, showing his dimples once again. “Gideon Bitterwood.”

“Oh don’t be sorry! We hadn’t introduced ourselves yet, I suppose we were waiting for you Gideon!” The young girl laughed at her joke. 

“I am Emma Bradshaw,” she said proudly, sitting up straight.

“You’re a Bradshaw?” Gideon exclaimed in disbelief. “Don’t tell me you are Robb Bradshaw’s daughter!”

“I am.” She nodded, smiling as if she expected this reaction. 

Elijah didn’t know what this meant, and he figured the boy next to him didn’t either since neither reacted in the way Gideon did.

“I suppose you’re going to be a Quidditch star too then.” Gideon’s comment gave Elijah the clue as to what they were talking about.

“I can only hope,” she said humbly. “What is your name?” she gestured at Elijah.

“Elijah,” he paused for a moment. “Oh, um Elijah Summers.” His face suddenly felt flushed.

“Oh interesting, like the season? ” she asked.

“Yes” he responded.

“ _ Oh interesting _ ,” she pursed her lips and thought. “I’ve never heard that last name before. Are you muggle born?” 

“No,” he said defensively. “Both my parents went to Hogwarts. They were in Hufflepuff.” Unfortunately this was pretty much the only fact he knew about their time at Hogwarts. 

“My mistake. I know a lot of wizard families, so I was just curious since I hadn’t heard of it before.” She waited a moment for the tension to cool, before asking the last boy what his name was.

“Oliver Lyptus.” He didn’t stutter, stammer, or blink. His name was clearly enunciated, so he would not have to repeat himself. He moved his hair so it was not covering his eyes as much, but moments later it fell back into place.

“Well I am  _ very  _ pleased to meet you Oliver.” She sat back into her seat, no longer arching her back. Although Elijah sat in the cabin first, he knew it was now  _ her  _ cabin, and she was the leader. “Do any of you have any older siblings at Hogwarts?” They all looked at each other and shook their heads. “Well  _ I  _ have an older sister in Gryffindor. She is a fourth year. She told  _ me  _ that Dumbledore,” she paused, “Dumbledore is the headmaster,” the boys nodded their heads, “Dumbledore is thinking about keeping students at Hogwarts over the holidays, given what happened last Christmas,” she waited for someone to ask her to elaborate. 

“What happened?” Elijah asked impatiently. He knew that she knew that they didn’t know, and she enjoyed holding that over them.

“A professor went missing, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Mordrove,” she said. The boys sat, enthralled. There was no way she was leaving it at that.

“Go on then,” Elijah tutted.

“Some people think it was his older brother, the professor’s older brother I mean. He was involved with a lot of dark magic, involved with  _ you-know-who _ .” But that was just the problem, Elijah didn’t know who. He was utterly clueless - something he hated being. Resentment started growing towards his parents, as he could clearly see how ill-informed he was about the current state of magic. He then realized what she was saying. He might not be able to see his family until next summer. The thought of that made him sick. 

Just like that the conversation was over. Gideon and Emma started talking about Quidditch and he fawned over her dad. Elijah sat, staring through the window, watching the green British countryside.

As the sun began to set, a prefect from the fifth year trolley announced that they would be arriving at Hogwarts soon, and that the students should get dressed in their black robes.

When the train came to a stop, the first year students, now all dressed the same, only distinguishable by their hair, face, and height got off and stood next to a large and ominous forest. Towering above them, was a giant man with a large black beard and a lantern, lighting a small area around the children. Across the lake stood a hauntingly magnificent mansion. Hogwarts.

“We are gonna start getting in boats,” the giant’s voice boomed, and he pointed at several wooden boats tied to the end of a dock. “Four to a boat will do.”

Elijah did not stray from familiarity and got into a boat with Emma, Oliver, and Gideon. He admired the uniformity of everyone’s attire. As all of the first year students got settled into the small rowboats, the giant got into one of his own, and led the students across the lake.

Emma rowed one oar, while Elijah rowed the other. While those two were focused on rowing, Oliver looked down at his reflection in the water, and Gideon looked up all around him, trying to get a better look at the other students and at Hogwarts. 

The building stood tall above them. As they made their way to the entrance, guided by the giant, the children quickly realized just how massive their school was. Elijah had never seen a building this tall before in his life. Not even Big Ben was this tall. He felt embarrassed as he was sure the other first years had been here before, whether it was for a Quidditch game or otherwise.

With doors wide open, there it was. The castle. The giant wooden doors were propped open showing a bright interior. Brighter than the sky during the daytime. It was a warm yellow light, rather than the white light he was used to seeing in stores and other buildings. 

It was at this moment, Elijah no longer felt scared. He felt at home. There was no mistake, this was where he was meant to be. After a very short man asked for his name - presumably to take attendance - Elijah took a step into the castle. He felt a chill, and he knew that it couldn’t be anything but magic running through his veins. 

  
  



	4. FIRST YEAR: The Sorting Ceremony

_ September 1st, 1985 _

As Elijah made his way into the banquet hall, he sat at the table filled with the other first years. He sat in between Emma and Oliver. All of the other children were nervous, he could tell - which strangely made him feel at ease. The other five rows of tables were filled with students in each house, while the first years were in the middle. Ravenclaw and Slytherin were to the left, and Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were sitting to the right.

He turned to Emma, she was waiting eagerly for the announcements from Dumbledore to begin. 

“What house d’you think you’ll be put in?” He asked, leaning over so she could hear him.

“Gryffindor,” she smiled, still looking forward as if she was manifesting it.

There was minimal chatter within the first years, especially compared to the second, third, fourth and so on years that greeted each other after a long summer. He caught sight of Sophia sitting at the Hufflepuff table, and he waved, glad to know someone already.

Elijah looked around and counted how many students were at the long table. Twenty-nine including himself. Some of the others looked very happy and excited, whereas some looked rather timid. 

He imagined himself getting sorted into each of the houses. Imagined the Hogwarts experience he would have if he wore the crimson and yellow colors, or the silver and green. He knew that he didn’t think that Slytherin wasn’t a good fit, so that was the only house he would be surprised if he got placed in. He wouldn’t mind being in a house with Emma. She was loud but warm. Maybe he only appreciated that because it was so unlike himself. Plus it was not up to Emma if she was placed in Gryffindor, it was up to the hat.

_ I wonder if anyone else is worried what house they are going to be placed in _ , he thought. He considered asking Oliver the same question he told Emma, but he did not want to bother him. He looked pleasantly content staying silent. 

Just then, Dumbledore stood at the podium. His figure was slim. It was obvious that Dumbledore - though a magnificent wizard - was a frail man. The thick robes he was wearing could not cover up his bony face structure that gave away his ageing appearance. He had long grey hair that cascaded down, halfway the length of his beard, which fell another foot below the end of his hair. He was wearing a fancy, but somewhat silly looking hat. 

“As we welcome back our students, and introduce our first years, we will continue with tradition and basic formalities by giving a few introductory statements for the first year students.” As he spoke, the chattering died down. He spoke softly, but everyone could hear him well.

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded almost a century ago by four truly remarkable witches and wizards: Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin.” There were brief claps from each of the houses after their founder was mentioned. “Since then, Hogwarts has been a haven for some of the best and brightest witches and wizards of this age. We strive for excellence in potion making, transfiguration, charms, herbology, astronomy, history of magic, and defence against the dark arts.” This seemed to be the end of the very brief introduction to the school, but Dumbledore continued.

“I would like to formally introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Last year, he stepped in as the intermittent teacher for the second semester, but I am pleased to now introduce him as Professor Rosier.” There was a round of applause as he stood up. He was younger than all of the other professors, most likely in his early thirties. He had long blondish hair that was pulled back into a bun, glasses, and a neat beard. 

Emma leaned over to Elijah and whispered, “Cora,” she paused realizing she never said her name, “my sister,” she explained. “She said he’s  _ really _ good.”

“There have been rumors, that I am disappointed to confirm. We will keep all of the students here during winter break. It brings me no joy in saying this, however given the circumstances that occurred last year, this was the safest option. You should all know that the safety of all of our students is our top priority.”

What ensued was frantic whispering, confused looked, and a general atmosphere of panic. 

“Worry not. All families are permitted to visit Hogwarts during the break, including muggle family members.” After a few moments of more whispering, Dumbledore continued.

“Given these uncertain times, we must continue. I now present Professor McGonagall to conduct the sorting ceremony.” There was minimal applause, mostly from prefects trying to distract from the news.

Professor McGonagall, dressed in an emerald color robe with a matching witch’s hat, stood and walked down the steps of the platform where the professors were sitting, and placed a chair just under the podium on the floor. Dumbledore left the podium and sat in a chair between two professors.

“When I call your name, come up and sit down. I will place the sorting hat above your head, and after you are sorted, please find your way to your respective house.” Elijah assumed that she must be a strict professor, based on the way she spoke.

He began to feel very nervous; queasy, even. Or maybe he was only excited, he couldn’t tell the difference.

Professor McGonagall pulled out a long scroll from her robe and began to read. Her lips were pursed anytime she did not speak.

“Asp, Dakota.” A young girl stood up, and made her way to McGonagall. She sat down, looking more excited than ever. The professor took the old wrinkly sorting hat and hovered it above her head.

“GRYFFINDOR!” it proclaimed. The voice boomed throughout the hall. With great pride and energy, the Gryffindor table jumped up cheering. Dakota got up and made her way to the table where she was welcomed and greeted.

The next student was a boy who was sorted into Slytherin. The green and silver table had a similar excited reaction as the Gryffindor table. 

Third up was a familiar face. Gideon Bitterwood. He sat in the chair looking ecstatic. The sorting hat was still inches above his head when he exclaimed, “HUFFLEPUFF!” Uproars followed from the corresponding table, and he shot up, his excitement showing in his grand smile.

“Bordrid, Walden… Cerbus, Clover… Chalks, Sapphire… Corlin, Karlee… ” 

“HUFFLEPUFF! SLYTHERIN! HUFFLEPUFF! GRYFFINDOR!” 

The anticipation grew as ten students had already been sorted, and Elijah still had yet to be called. They were in the ‘D’s by now. 

“Dovetail, Brooke.”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

Elijah wondered if the population of each house was equally proportionate, or if one house had more than the others. There had been quite a lot of Hufflepuffs. He got ready to stand up as he suspected his name would be called soon, if not next.

“Elm, Helena.”

“SLYTHERIN!”

He was too nervous to notice the questioning glances between the Slytherin students and a lack of applause.

“Summers, Elijah.”

He felt butterflies in his stomach. He slowly got out of his seat, leaving Emma and Oliver behind. He looked pale, and felt flushed. The entire school was staring at him, patiently waiting for him to reach the seat next to Professor McGonagall and for him to sit. He sat, facing his audience. He could smell the old hat, it smelled like leather. Elijah looked up at the professor, eager for any kind of approval. 

She slowly brought the hat up, and lifted it above his head. His life flashed before his eyes.

“Loyal and ambitious, but very wise…” the hat thought for a second.

Elijah looked up at the brim of the hat, unable to gain any insight to his impending answer.

“RAVENCLAW!”

There it was. His new future: blue and bronze. The commotion of noise and cheering from his newfound fellows confused him at first. He quickly got up and staggered over to the Ravenclaw table. After sitting down, and taking a few deep breaths, he realized he was the only person yet to be sorted into Ravenclaw. A few boys patted him on the back, while several girls congratulated him. His heart was racing, and he was so focused on himself that he didn’t realize the boy who was called right after him, Sterling Fauns, was also sorted into Ravenclaw. He joined the table, sitting next to Elijah. The boy looked similar to Gideon, however his facial features were much more pointed, and his blonde hair looked flatter like it had gel in it. 

Elijah didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the sorting ceremony, as he was waiting for his feelings of anxiety to subside. He only chose to pay attention again when McGonagall called Emma’s name.

“Bradshaw, Emma.”

After a brief intercession of cheers from the Gryffindor table, the sorting hat took quite a while to think. Elijah thought it was debating between Gryffindor and Slytherin, so he knew there would be a slim chance they would be in a house together.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

She knew that was going to happen. She merrily strutted over to the Gryffindor table and sat by an older girl with bright blonde hair, most likely her sister. Directly after her was the last member of the four seat cabin.

“Lyptus, Oliver.”

“RAVENCLAW!”

Elijah felt a sense of relief wash over him. Finally there was someone he knew. Oliver walked over to the table, and sat across from Elijah and Sterling at the end. A few older Ravenclaw boys jostled Oliver’s hair, messing it up. Oddly enough, he left his hair how it was, and did not fix it. 

The sorting ceremony came to an end after Tom Wolpers was sorted into Gryffindor, and there were now no first years left unsorted. 

*  *  *

Elijah tried to repeat the name of the new Ravenclaws in his head to memorize them.  _ Oliver, Sterling, Forrest, Zahra, Fern _ .  _ Who else?  _ he thought.  _ Oh! Hazel, he _ remembered. There were seven of them, four boys and three girls. 

A prefect by the name of Holden Ollivander guided the new students through the castle. The moving staircases left most of the students in awe, except for Oliver, he showed no reaction at all to anything. Holden told them the secret passcode to get into the Ravenclaw common room,  _ wormwood _ . 

The common room was the subject of wonder. With a grand portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw in the center of the room, everything reflected the spirit of Ravenclaw. The blue tapestries, and the bronze metal around the fireplace was stunning. There was a small fountain in the middle of the room. Elijah looked, and there were dozens of small fish swimming in the fountain. Built-in bookcases surrounded them, as well as Renaissance style art of famous witches and wizards. His favorite was an impressionist style painting of the Black Lake by Manet.  _ He was a wizard? _ Elijah thought, surprised. He also noticed a romantic-era painting of two wizards in a boat fighting off Grindylows. 

The four Ravenclaw boys retired to their room, which had just enough beds for them. Elijah wondered if all dorms come with four beds, or if they changed if after the sorting ceremony with magic.

He chose the middle bed on the right, and Oliver chose the bed next to him on the end. Sterling chose the bed to the left of Elijah, and Forrest, by default, got the bed on the end by Sterling. They slowly started unpacking, waiting for someone to break the silence.

Elijah looked over at the boy he knew the least about. Forrest Inkwood was a few inches taller than the other three boys, and had light black skin. His hair was wiry and added more height to his lanky figure. 

At the foot of their bed was a trunk filled with their Ravenclaw robes, and Elijah began looking through them, admiring the sewn patches on the chest.

As the boys got in their beds to lay down, Elijah wondered if anyone was going to speak at all, or if he should break the silence instead. 

“I don’t want to stay here during winter break.” Forrest said.

“I know!” Sterling shot up. “It’s ridiculous isn't it?” He had a posh accent. “I don’t know how anyone would expect us to be locked up all winter! It would drive someone mad.”

“Do you guys know anything about the professor who went missing?” Elijah asked Sterling and Forrest.

Forrest looked clueless, but Sterling said, “Only about his family.” The three stared at him, waiting for him to continue. “The Mordrove family is a large pure-blood family. Professor Mordrove’s father was Marvin Mordrove if I remember correctly, and he came here from America. They had a bunch of children who all went to Hogwarts over the years, but the two in Slytherin practiced dark magic. The first born went to Hogwarts with  _ you-know-who _ and was even in his year. They think she died, probably helping  _ you-know-who _ , and the other Mordrove Slytherin is in Azkaban, or at least that’s what some people think.”

“Azkaban?” Elijah asked.

“It’s the wizard prison,” he paused before speaking again. “Wait, are you muggle born?”

“No,” he felt embarrassed. “My parents never talked about magic much.”

“Anyway,” Sterling continued, “Some people think that the Mordrove boy in Azkaban escaped, and then kidnapped his brother, the professor, and killed him. He did teach Defence Against the Dark Arts after all. 

This was all new information to Elijah and it all felt unsettling. His parents taught him nothing about ‘dark magic’ and he could not believe that. Things like that would have been very nice to know before coming here.

The boys layed back down in their beds, and stared at the ceiling. The ceiling looked like it was reflecting an illuminated pool, with water-like lights dancing on the surface of the ceiling. Elijah realized that he had much more to worry about at Hogwarts than classes.

  
  



	5. FIRST YEAR: Perfect Wooden Sphere

_September 2nd, 1985_

When Elijah awoke the next morning, he noticed the pale light that covered the ceiling was gone. Instead, the room was flooded by beams of light coming in through the windows. He could see the bits of dust and other particles floating in the air, caught in the stream of light. He sat up and looked over to his right. Sterling was still asleep in his bed, his perfect blonde hair seemed to be unaffected by the pillow. Forrest was also still sleeping in his bed. Over to his left was an empty bed. _Oliver must have left already_. He looked at the clock, it was still almost two hours before class started.

He knew he would not be able to go back to bed if he tried, plus he didn’t need an extra hour of sleep - he already felt perfectly energized. Elijah just didn’t want to wait another two hours before classes started, he was too excited to wait. His first class of the day was Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, then Herbology, then lunch, then History of Magic, and finally Defense Against the Dark Arts. Tomorrow he had Charms, lunch, Astronomy, and Potions. 

Elijah was the most excited for Charms, as he was very excited to use his wand. Professor Flitwick was also the head of Ravenclaw house, so maybe he’d be extra pleased that Elijah had already read the charms book _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade I_ . He loved reading about it, but when he tried practicing _Spongify_ on a brick outside, it ended up becoming mushy instead of soft and spongy. He wondered if Sterling, Forrest, and Oliver were going to be better wizards than him. None of them were muggle born, and he was already almost done with the readings for the year, but he knew hardly anything about the wizarding world. 

As he got ready, brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and putting on his sweater and robe, he debated whether or not he should look for Oliver. _He’s probably just an introvert_. He shrugged it off and quietly left the sleeping boys. 

In his extra free time before class, Elijah managed to eat breakfast. He was somewhat relieved to see Oliver eating the end of a table by himself. He was going to ask to sit with him when he was interrupted.

“Elijah!” He quickly turned his head to see a small brown haired girl eating some strawberry jam covered toast.

“Hello Sophia!” the rest of him turned around to face her.

“D’you wanna sit with me?” she said, wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin.

“Yeah, thanks.” He sat down and grabbed a plate and started grabbing some food. Toast, hard boiled eggs, and a waffle. He started covering the toast with blueberry jam.

They sat in silence while he started munching on his toast, and she seemed to be finishing up her meal. “Are you excited for classes?” she asked between the bites she took of her toast.

“Very much so,” he swallowed, wiping his mouth with his wrist. “I tried to use the softening charm on a brick, but it ended up turning to mush.” Elijah seemed slightly embarrassed to have admitted his failure.

“Ah, a trick for that is to keep your index finger extended along the wand while you perform the spell, instead of wrapped around with your other fingers.” Instead of taking her word for it, he pulled out his wand and dumped everything off his plate onto the tablecloth. He held the wand, this time keeping his index finger extended like she told him. _Spongify!_

A shot of yellow light flew out of the wand, striking the glass plate. Still between his fingers, he felt the smooth ceramic feeling of the plate fade and be replaced by a firm but rubbery feeling. He lifted the plate above the floor and dropped it. Instead of shattering, the plate hit the ground, folded slightly, and bounced up before hitting the ground again and laying flat. “Amazing!” Elijah was ecstatic. That was the first spell he had successfully performed. 

“See! What did I tell you?” Sophia was smiling, and then added, “If you need any help with anything else just let me know! I passed Charms with an outstanding, but you’re smart, you probably won’t need any help,” she laughed. “Anyway, I have to get to my potions class early, I’ve got to stay on Snape’s good side.”

“Okay! I’ll see you later! Good luck!” As the yellow trim of her robe left with the rest of her, Elijah looked around to see if there was anyone else at the dining hall he could finish his meal with. Nope. Oliver must’ve left at some point. He stared down at his blueberry jam toast, now face down on the tablecloth. He started shoving the rest of the waffle in his mouth before picking up the rubbery plate off the ground and placing it on the table and then he left. _I’m sure they’ve had to clean worse messes than that before_.

Before he got to his Transfiguration class, he made a lap around Hogwarts, to see which rooms he had classes in. He noted that the walk from History of Magic to Defense Against the Dark Arts was going to be difficult as they only had a five minute break between classes, and it took him nearly seven minutes to walk.

* * *

He walked into the class and sat down. Front and center. Next to him, already sitting, was Oliver. Professor McGonagall stared at the two, her lips forever pursed. She looked like she was in a state of contempt, but maybe it was concentration as she asked, “Who are your parents?” Elijah was too caught off guard to answer first.

“Gregory and Sansa Lyptus,” he said, almost robotically.

“Gregory,” she nodded, remembering. “Good student. I remember him. Quiet. Very good,” she sat for a moment, reminiscing. “And you Mr. Summers?”

“Henry and Elizabeth.” He waited for her to say something, but she was still trying to remember. “Elizabeth Mason?” _Maybe she'd recognize her maiden name,_ he thought. 

“Mmm, yes,” she continued nodding. “Smart girl. Excellent at transfiguration.” As she said this, Sterling entered with Forrest. They sat down right behind Elijah and Oliver as the Hufflepuff students started filtering in, most sitting in the back. Even though the sorting ceremony was only last night, Elijah could only remember Gideon’s name out of the Hufflepuff students. He thought all of the girls looked the same; white, pale, and had long brown hair. The three girls sorted in Ravenclaw were slightly more distinctive. Zahra had dark skin, with black hair. Elijah thought she may be middle eastern, but he certainly wasn’t going to ask out of nowhere. Hazel had long straight brown hair, green eyes, and freckles, she was also slightly taller than Zahra and Fern. By comparison, Fern was much skinnier than the other two, and her collarbones were very pronounced because of it. She had frizzy black hair that she kept in a braid. Elijah wondered if they got along better than the boys did. Not to say they didn’t get along well, they just haven’t warmed up to each other yet.

McGonagall cleared her voice to get the class’s attention. The class hushed, as she brought out a rubber duck. It was a strange sight to see, a rubber duck in Hogwarts. Especially since the walls were made of bricks and everything was so rustic and medieval. Without saying a word, she placed it on Oliver’s desk, stood back, and tapped it with her wand. 

_Anaserio_. The rubber duck transformed into a small yellow duckling that waddled and quacked to Oliver. It walked right off of the desk into Oliver’s lap, and he gently picked it up and held it in his hands. The class sat and watched the duck quack while Oliver petted it with his thumb.

 _Flexilis reditus_. The tip of her wand was glowing green as the small duckling reverted to its bright yellow self. Oliver softly put the rubber duck on the desk, and McGonagall took it and put it in a drawer in her desk.

“Transfiguration will help you in more situations than this, students. It is quite a tricky subject to master, however, it can be very rewarding. Today we are going to practice a very simple transfiguration spell. Please turn to page four.” She managed to make a second of intense eye contact with each student while she was saying this speech. As Elijah turned to page four, it was the _Spheratatio_ spell, to turn a cube into a sphere. She picked up a bag and pulled out small wooden cubes and placed one on each person's desk. She then placed one on her slanted podium and said _Spheratatio_. It quickly turned into a sphere and rolled off onto the floor. “The first student to successfully transfigure a cube into a sphere will receive ten points to their house.”

There was already enough incentive to finish before everyone else, but this also added to Elijah’ excitement. As everyone frantically started recanting the spell, he decided to read the page. It was hard to focus as the Hufflepuffs ended up causing their cubes to fly to the other side of the room or to explode. 

“ _Speak softly, but confidently. Imagine the cube transforming in your mind_ . _The clearer the picture in your mind, the better the results_ .” it read. Elijah pulled out his wand, and tried to ignore the pandemonium happening behind him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. _Spheratatio_.

“Excellent work. Ten points to Ravenclaw!” Elijah opened his eyes to see McGonagall at his side. He smiled, amazed that the cube had transformed into a near perfect sphere. He looked up to see her face, but she was turned around. Holding the sphere that Oliver had created just seconds prior to Elijah. “Amazing Mr. Lyptus, very impressive.” She turned around to see Elijah’s sphere. “Good work Mr. Summers.” His heart sunk into the floor, he looked over at Oliver, quietly sitting, staring at his perfect wooden sphere.

Within the five minutes following Elijah and Oliver’s completion, all of the Ravenclaw students transfigured their cubes. Forrest and Fern’s looked a little wonky, but they could more or less roll. By the end of class almost every student had perfected the spell, creating a perfectly spherical ball. Except for a Hufflepuff boy sitting next to Gideon whose name was Walden Bordrid. He accidentally blew his first two cubes up, and then turned the third into a pyramid, and then lost the fourth one somehow. He was probably embarrassed and didn’t want to fail a fourth time.

As Elijah walked with Forrest, Oliver, and Sterling to Herbology, he asked, “Do you guys think we can win the house cup?”

“It depends,” Sterling started, “Slytherin usually wins. Only ‘cause they cheat. When they don’t win, it’s usually Gryffindor, usually for a stupid reason. But from what I’ve heard, professors are too worried about what happened to Mordrove last year that they don’t even care as much as to what’s going on, but the prefects are gonna be a lot harsher. They can take away points and such. So I guess it’s gonna be fair game.”

Elijah thought Sterling talked so confidently, but he was also worried that he had no idea what he was talking about. “Huh,” he paused. “We should try to win.”

“Yeah, I don’t know much about the houses and everything, but it kind of seems like nobody really cares about Ravenclaw,” Forrest added.

“Or Hufflepuff,” Elijah interjected.

“Rightly so,” said Sterling, “About the Hufflepuff I mean. They are as good as squibs.”

They kept walking in silence, and then Sterling stopped the other three.

“Okay boys. We should do it. We should win the house cup for Ravenclaw, and restore it to our former glory.”

“Did we use to be glorious?” Forrest asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” he paused and looked at them, fire in his eyes. “What do ya say? Are you in?” The three stared at him silently. Sterling put his hand out in front of him. Elijah put his hand on top of his, followed by Forrest and then Oliver.

“Ravenclaw on the count of three!” Sterling shouted. They were standing in the middle of the hallway, being passed by irritated third and fourth years. 

“One, two, three, Ravenclaw!” The boys chanted. Some more loudly than others.

They proceeded to arrive at their Herbology class, where they each were deducted five points by Professor Sprout for being late.

  
  



	6. FIRST YEAR: The Flying Lesson

_ September 9th, 1985 _

The first year Hogwarts students had gotten through their first week of classes, and this meant they could start flying lessons with Madame Hooch. Elijah was not particularly excited to start flying lessons as he got motion sickness quite easily. However, he was excited to try something new with his Ravenclaw pals. He had grown fond of them over the past week. He tried to have a favorite, but he really couldn’t pick. Sterling was knowledgeable about Hogwarts and the wizard world, but often lagged behind Elijah and Oliver and felt quite pretentious sometimes. Forrest was hilarious, but sometimes it was hard to appreciate his sense of humor when Elijah was trying to pay attention to class. Oliver was brilliant at his spells, better than Elijah, but hardly ever spoke.

It had been decided by the administration that flying lessons for first years would start before classes on Mondays and Wednesdays for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and Tuesdays and Thursdays for Gryffindor and Slytherin. These lessons would go until the Quidditch season started in mid-October. 

* * *

“Rise and shine Summers,” Sterling said, lightly shaking Elijah’s shoulder. He turned to see Sterling above him, with a toothbrush in his mouth. “It’s the big day!” Sterling gave one thumbs up with his free hand.

“Great,” Elijah said, groggily. Grotto was curled up at the foot of his bed. “Sorry bud, we’ve got to go fly on a broomstick.”  _ Meow _ . Grotto hissed, hopping off of the bed, and proceeding to jump onto Forrest’s cabinet, sitting on his clean robes. 

“Awe c’mon, you know I’m allergic to cats,” Forrest whined.

Elijah walked over to pick Grotto up, “Hey if I knew I’d be sorted into a house with someone who is disabled I would’ve gotten a toad instead.”

“Being allergic to cats isn’t a disa-”

“Inkwood’s disabled isn’t he?” he cooed to Grotto. “It’s okay, he’s _our_ _little disabled_ right Grotto? And we aren’t going to let anyone hurt him.” Elijah and Sterling started laughing.

“I’m guessing Lyptus is already there isn’t he?” Elijah looked around, not seeing a trace of Oliver.

“Yep. Probably been gone for hours,” Sterling said, helping Forrest pick the cat hairs off of his robe.  _ Linteolum emotus _ . Elijah flicked his wand at the robe, incinerating any cat dander and fur. 

“Where’d you learn  _ that  _ one, Summers?” Forrest inquired.

“A friend. A second year,” Elijah smirked.

“What? Is that supposed to impress me?” Forrest laughed.

“Why wouldn’t-”

“I would’ve thought he would have warmed up to us by now.” Sterling interrupted. “Lyptus I mean.” 

“I don’t know,” Elijah shrugged. “I think he’s just shy.”

“I think he doesn’t like us. I mean why does he leave so early?” Forrest looked at the both of them.

“He’s just quiet, that’s all. He’s probably an only child and isn’t used to living with other kids. Maybe he’s an insomniac.” Elijah defended him.

“I don’t need to hear about the muggle brain diseases again Summers, we need to confront him and ask him why he doesn’t like spending time with us. We are supposed to be forming a brotherhood that lasts a lifetime and that’s become increasingly difficult to achieve when he leaves two hours before any of us wake up.” This was the kind of situation that made Elijah not like Sterling.

“Well, confronting him is probably the worst idea. So now that we’ve got that out of the way, are there any better ideas?” Elijah looked at Forrest.

“Why don’t we just tell him how much we appreciate his presence. Maybe he’s worried that we don’t like him because he’s quiet.” Forrest looked for approval from Elijah and Sterling.

“Yeah! That’s perfect Forrest. We just need him to know that we appreciate him, and then maybe he’ll start to warm up to us.” Elijah said before Sterling could get a word in. They all got ready silently, waiting for Sterling to break the silence.

“Sounds like a plan then. Let’s get on then chaps, or else we’ll be late.” The three, who sacrificed breakfast for an extra half-hour of sleep, trudged across the campus to the Quidditch pitch where practice was being held.

* * *

At seven in the morning, you’d expect to see a lot of tired faces, but not here. Oliver, who’d been up since 4:30, had plenty of time to wake up, and all of the Hufflepuff students were inexplicably well-rested. The Ravenclaw girls rolled their eyes as the boys showed up right as practice started, stretching and yawning like they had just gotten out of bed. 

“Would you look at that boys,” Sterling looked at Elijah and Forrest. “It seems everyone got eight hours of sleep didn’t they?” 

“Yeah, ‘cause Hufflepuff doesn’t do their homework.” Forrest spurted. Elijah could see Gideon roll his eyes from Forrest’s comment from across the field. Madame Hooch had them start with stretches, walking up and down the field stretching their legs, doing cartwheels, and jumping jacks occasionally.

After a complete warm-up session, Madame Hooch instructed each student to lay a broom at their side. The Ravenclaw students lined up in a row, next to the Hufflepuffs. Elijah looked down at the battered broom he was given and how it sat on the dewy grass.

“The first step of flying is how you get on with the broom. The best flyers have control over their broom. This starts from the first time you pick it up. So all of you are going to start by commanding the broom up!” As she said the last word, her broom flew up into her hand. “That’s the word. Up.” The students looked around, waiting for more information. “What are you waiting for?” she yelled. “Get on to it!”

There were a few awkward murmurs of “up,” which slowly evolved into louder babblings. Most students had trouble with this task, and Elijah realized this is probably why people only care about Gryffindor and Slytherin’s Quidditch teams. He took a deep breath and tried to focus as hard as he could. 

“Up!” Nothing. “Up!” he said louder. “UP!” The broom rose a few inches before falling again. Elijah sighed and rolled his eyes. “Ridiculous.” 

Aegis Horn was the first of the boys to get his broom up, followed by Sterling. Eventually Elijah got the broom up, and luckily he wasn’t the last to do so. Oliver and Walden were the last two Hooch was waiting for. Walden could not get the broom to move for the life of him, but Oliver simply was not talking loud enough. Elijah stood right next to him and could barely hear him.

Madame Hooch must’ve been particularly tired this morning, because instead of waiting for the two to raise their brooms, she gave in and let them pick them up. 

When it got to the actual flying portion, the boys were quite average. Sterling was able to move his broom easily with vigor, Forrest and Elijah were quite shaky at the start but got the hang of it soon enough. Oliver, miraculously, was able to get more than ten feet off of the ground. He was truly soaring to new heights. It was clear that the best flyer out of the lot of them was Zahra. She flew the highest and the fastest, even faster than Aegis. She looked like a complete natural, but it also might be because her sister, Alma Rosewood, was a sixth year beater for Ravenclaw. 

Madame Hooch brought out several Quaffles that she had students pass to each other while flying and try to throw in the goals. Elijah, Sterling, and Forrest flew tens of yards above Oliver, still close to the ground. Hooch was still trying to get him to fly higher, but he was reluctant. 

It only took twenty minutes of flying up and down, and spinning around for Elijah to feel nauseous. He made it back to the ground and sat on a bench, next to Gideon, who had fallen off his broom twice and decided to stop. 

“I guess being a Quidditch player’s not gonna happen,” he said to Elijah, sullenly. He felt bad for Gideon, given how he’d talked about Quidditch to Emma on the train. 

“Cheer up mate,” he pointed at Walden Bordrid, who was violently swinging from left to right as if his broom had been possessed. Madame Hooch was thirty feet below him on the field, trying to levitate him off of his broom and down to safety. 

“Yeah,” he laughed. Cheering him up seemed to work slightly. “What’s being in Ravenclaw like?”

“Good,” Elijah looked at Sterling and Forrest tossing the Quaffle to each other, then to Oliver flying at three kilometers an hour. “A little competitive though, and Sterling can be full of himself, but otherwise it’s been good.”

“Have you talked to Emma? From the train?” His eyes lit up, it felt like he had been wanting to ask that since Elijah sat down.

“Not since before she got sorted. I don’t really get to see anyone from Gryffindor besides at mealtime.” He looked over at Gideon, who reverted back to his disappointment.

“I haven’t talked to anyone much really. All the guys are nice, but they are really awkward and don’t talk much to me or anyone really. Emma was nice.”

“Listen mate, if you ever want to hang out just come over to the Ravenclaw common room and you can hang out with us. I’m sure Sterling and Forrest wouldn’t mind.”

“Okay, I might have to take you up on that,” he looked at Elijah and smiled. The two sat together and enjoyed seeing the rest of the students fly around. Some time later they were joined by Oliver. They all sat on the bench, watching the sun rise above the trees in the forest beyond the Quidditch pitch. Once the sun did peak out from the tips of the trees and the sun hit their faces, the trio sat together, squinting. 

* * *

After the flying lesson, Sterling was convinced he would be the first great Ravenclaw Quidditch player. 

“I think you are gifted in  _ other  _ areas,” Forrest said, diminishing Sterling’s optimism. 

“And don’t you dare go wasting your time practicing flying. We’ve got a house cup to win.” Elijah said.

“Last I checked, Slytherin is already at 100 points.” Sterling said, defeated.

“A hundred!” Forrest and Elijah exclaimed. “It’s only been a week.”

“How many are we at?” Elijah asked.

“Last I checked…” Sterling thought. “5?” 

“Okay that seems slightly ridiculous.” Elijah said, narrowing his eyes.

“We did lose twenty points when we were late to Sprout’s class.” Sterling said.

Forrest groaned. “That was stupid.”

“But!” Sterling interjected. “We do have a chance. Do you know why?”

“Why?” Elijah said, entertaining him. 

“Because, there is a Wizard Chess tournament happening on Halloween. The winner gets fifty house points! And we’re a smart bunch, and it’s probably not  _ that  _ difficult, and if we take away a win from Slytherin, then we won’t have to suck up as much in class.”

“Why don’t we win the chess tournament  _ and  _ suck up?” Elijah thought out loud. “We need to be the best students in the entire school. We only need to be perfect, it’s not too hard.”

“We need to get the whole house on this,” said Forrest. “Rally the troops y’know? It’s not fair that we should carry the entire house”

“I shall call a house meeting tonight.” Sterling proclaimed.

“Do you have the authority to do that?” Elijah looked up at him. Sterling looked deep in thought, only to gain a look of sorrow. “How about, we tell Zahra, Hazel, and Fern tonight. Get them on board first, then talk to the upper years.” 

It was a plan. For the first time, the Ravenclaw first years would meet together with one shared goal. Elijah was excited at this idea, and surprisingly so was Forrest and Sterling. Oliver obviously had no audible opinions. 

During Transfiguration class, Forrest wrote notes to the girls. Written on them was the following message:  _ Meet the boys in the common room at 9pm - don’t be late _ .


	7. FIRST YEAR: Professor Rosier

_ September 13th, 1985 _

Gargoyles looked down at the students sitting in Professor Rosier’s class. Elijah couldn’t help but stare at them, high above, perched on stone ledges. One horned gargoyle in particular, directly above Hazel, looked especially nefarious. The stoney atmosphere of his ill-lit classroom felt appropriate for the subject matter of the class. It seemed that none of the first year students were very excited for this class. Even Elijah, who loved going to class, found himself not looking forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts. It may be because they have to learn all of the grim material without getting to do anything fun. Plus, the first few weeks of class were meant to go over the history of dark arts. Elijah did enjoy this, however, as he quickly got caught up to the important history of the wizard world - the history his parents had left out. 

Elijah thought about the meeting he had with the girls on Monday night. It was now Friday, and clearly the talk had worked as Ravenclaw had gained nearly sixty points this week, compared to Slytherin’s lackluster forty. Even though they were the same age, Zahra, Hazel, and Fern seemed so much more mature than the boys. Zahra was clearly the leader of their group. Maybe he was simplifying things by thinking this. They all probably saw Sterling as the leader of the boys, but that didn’t mean much. Maybe in private, the girls didn’t have a hierarchy. 

After their meeting, they collectively decided that it would be best if Zahra talked to the second year Ravenclaws to recruit them into their plan. She was, after all, the most charming first year student. If she couldn’t convince the other Ravenclaws to be on their best behavior and try to get as many points, nobody could.

Although this was not their first class session in Defense Against the Dark Arts, the students still felt uncomfortable. The room was cold and dark and generally unwelcoming, but Rosier had a personality that kept them all warm.

Professor Rosier always stood tall. He always found a way to laugh, but it was always a dignified and academic laugh. He didn’t laugh like a child, he always exuded a mature energy. At the beginning of each class he would ask the students if they had learned any new spells, and even asked them to demonstrate if possible - as a way of lightening the mood. He had gone to muggle school after he went to Hogwarts. There he spent most of his time learning various languages. Korean, Xhosa, and Hebrew were just a few. The students were both impressed and amused to hear their professor speak a tongue-clicking language.

After thinking about it for a while, Elijah decided that Rosier was his favorite professor, despite teaching one of his least favorite subjects. He wasn’t strict like McGonagall or Sprout, and he wasn’t mean like Snape, nor was he boring like Professor Binns. He even made unsuccessful attempts to liven the dark and brooding classroom. But every time he lifted the shades, it started raining. He figured that if it was going to rain every time he rolled the shades up, he might as well keep them drawn. So there the class sat, their sixth session, scribbling notes in the candlelight. 

“Professor Rosier?” Brooke Dovetail piped up.

“Yes Ms. Dovetail?” Fortunately, Rosier was a good sport about being interrupted, and he loved answering student’s questions.

“Why can’t we leave during winter break?” The class was shocked at such a straightforward question, although they all wanted to ask it.

He sputtered for a moment, caught speechless. “I believe it to be reasons regarding your safety.” His response was overwhelmingly unsatisfying.

“Yes professor, I understand that, but what happened last year? Why is it dangerous?” Elijah forgot that some students hadn’t the slightest clue as to what was happening. But he was grateful to know that he had at least some insight into the situation - only because of his conversations with Emma and Sterling. 

“Yes,” he paused, “well…” he was still searching for words. “Last winter, my predecessor, Professor Mordrove, suddenly disappeared.” He spoke slowly, carefully choosing his words.

“What happened to him?” Brooke inquired. Elijah was surprised that she was so persistent, but he was also thankful, because he wanted more answers as well. 

“Nobody knows what happened,” it looked like Rosier thought this would be the end of the conversation. He was wrong.

“Well what do people  _ think _ happened to him?” Brooke insisted, she sounded impatient.

“I’m not sure that this discussion is-”

“They think he’s  _ dead _ .” Sterling cut Rosier off. “They think his brother killed him, and is going to kill someone else this winter.” His posh accent was in full affect, and he sounded like a brash know-it-all now more than ever.

“Enough!” For the first time since Elijah got to Hogwarts, he saw a genuinely upset professor. “I appreciate your curiosity, but now is not the time or place. I assure you all that Dumbledore is going to keep all of you, and all of the staff safe. I promise he will never let anything like that happen again.” His outburst of anger quickly subdued into something much more comforting. “There are dark forces in the world,” he gritted his teeth, “but they are nothing first years need to worry about.”

Elijah shot a nasty look at Sterling, glad that Ravenclaw didn’t lose any of the house points they worked so hard to gain. Sterling shrugged. 

The rest of class continued to go on as normal, and Brooke looked very regretful that she brought up the subject. At the end of class, they were all assigned their first essay of the year. Two scrolls worth of writing detailing the effects Salazar Slytherin had on the housing system at Hogwarts.

“You guys can go on without me, I have to ask Rosier a question.” Elijah said to the boys, they nodded and continued without him. He sheepishly walked up to Professor Rosier who was sorting his books on the small bookshelf behind his desk. “Professor?” 

The slender man turned around, staring down at Elijah. “Yes?” he said, continuing to place and reorder books on the shelf. 

“I had a question,” Elijah said, his voice quiet. Professor Rosier turned around to look at him. He didn’t look at his professor, instead his eyes were fixated on a globe on the desk. It had dark thundering clouds over various parts of the world. 

“Remind me of your name again.” The professor stacked his books and sat in his chair, smiling at Elijah.

“Elijah Summers,” he still didn’t dare look him in the eye.

“What’s your question Elijah?” His eyes met Rosier’s for the first time, then they quickly darted to drape over a nearby window.

“Well,” he paused, thinking for a good way to phrase it. “It’s not about class. It’s about something else that has been bothering me.” He looked at Rosier again.

“Okay,” Rosier said, waiting for him to continue.

“Um… My parents never told me much about magic, so I don’t know much. I would be too embarrassed to ask any other students, because well…” he paused.

“What’s your question?” He tried to keep his caring demeanor, but it was clear that he was getting annoyed by Elijah not getting to the point.

“Who is  _ you-know-who _ ?” Elijah said quickly. Still looking at the drape. He looked over to see Professor Rosier take a deep breath and lean back in his chair. He exhaled through his nose and tried to think of a good answer. 

“‘ _ You-know-who _ ’, is a dark wizard. A  _ bad  _ man. He killed many wizards trying to be more powerful.” Rosier was nervously tapping a quill on his scroll, ink bleeding into the parchment.

“What kind of power?” Elijah asked, hoping that he would still be willing to answer.

“Political power, of sorts. He believed a lot of nasty things, and unfortunately had a following. But most of them are in Azkaban now.” Rosier looked up at Elijah. Their eyes met for another brief moment. 

“What happened to him? Is he still alive?”

“We don’t…” Rosier thought for a moment as to whether or not he should continue. He didn’t want to frighten his student, but he saw no other way to explain it. “We don’t know,” there was a grave pause. “He disappeared, almost five years ago.”

“Oh,” he waited for Rosier to say something good. Elijah guessed it was his fault since he asked, but he was hoping for a silver lining.

“But I promise you, Elijah, that our staff, and the ministry, are doing everything they can to protect our students. I promise nothing bad will happen to you.” 

That was the problem. Even if nothing bad happened to Elijah, something bad would happen to someone. It was only a matter of time before that happened.

“Thank you Professor. I appreciate it.” Professor Rosier gave Elijah a quiet nod and he left, going to return to the Ravenclaw common room.

* *  * 

“I can’t believe you Fauns!” Elijah said as he walked into the boy's room. Sterling was sitting on the floor against his bed reading his Herbology textbook.

“What are you going on about?” He said, generally uncaring.

“You can’t just blurt out things in class! What about the house cup?” Elijah was getting more agitated.

“What about it?” Sterling shrugged.

“We’ve been working so hard this week. Especially the girls. The girls alone got us nearly 25 points this week. So don’t jeopardize our success so you can get a word in.”

“I was right wasn’t I?” Sterling finally looked up from his textbook, over at Elijah.

“I don’t  _ care _ if you were right. You were being a know-it-all little prat.” That came off a little harsher than Elijah meant. Oliver and Forrest both looked up from their books as well. Sterling looked slightly surprised.

“Hey, let’s calm down guys,” Forrest stood up walking towards Elijah.

“It was stupid of you, that’s all I’m saying.” Elijah tried to end the conversation by sitting down and pulling out a textbook.

“Did you just call me stupid?” Sterling stood up and threw his textbook behind him on his bed.

“I was right wasn’t I?” Elijah said mockingly. The pot was successfully stirred. Sterling pulled his wand out of his robe pocket and pointed it at Elijah. “Are you sure you know how to use that thing Fauns?” Elijah was now pointing his own wand at Sterling.

“Knock it off! Both of you!” Forrest stood between them. “Professor Rosier didn’t take away any house points, so no harm no foul,” he said looking at Elijah. “And you  _ can _ be kind of a prat sometimes,” Sterling glared at Forrest and Elijah. “No offense,” he paused. “And we have been working really hard to get house points, so you have to be on your best behavior too, Fauns.” He returned to Elijah. “But that doesn’t mean you can antagonize him either, Summers.” Sterling and Elijah were then united in their annoyance of Forrest.

“Whatever,” they both said, rolling their eyes.

“Now.” Forrest got a wicked look on his face. “Apologize to each other.” They both groaned. “Or I’ll tell Flitwick you two were fighting. I’d reckon that’s at least a _five_ _point_ deduction.” 

“I’m sorry Sterling. Really, I am.” Elijah could not sound less convincing.

“I’m sorry as well, my dear Elijah.” They both found their fake apologies to be amusing.

“Now hug.” Forrest was grinning ear to ear.

They both looked at him and screamed, “What?!”

“I’ll be on my way to get Flitwick then,” Forrest turned around to leave the room.

“Fine, fine, fine!” Elijah and Sterling looked at eachother. Elijah noticed that Oliver had a slight grin on his face, but he was trying to hide it. Elijah and Sterling hugged for a few seconds, patting each other on the back for good measure and then went back to sitting down.

After nearly half an hour of silent reading, Elijah noticed that Forrest was still smiling.

“Proud of yourself?” Elijah said, looking at Forrest.

“Oh you have no idea,” Forrest said as he started laughing. This went on for a few more seconds until Sterling tossed the Herbology book at the back of Forrest’s head. He pulled Sterling off his bed and they started wrestling, while Elijah began to laugh. 


	8. FIRST YEAR: Checkmate

_ October 5th, 1985 _

The dull monotony of the school year was now in full effect. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, after five weeks classes no longer felt novel. Even preparing for the chess tournament was a stale routine. Every Friday, the boys finished their homework, sometimes staying up into two in the morning. The next two days, they played chess until their minds melted. After reading every single wizarding chess book the library had to offer, it was suffice to say that these four boys were nothing short of unstoppable. However, unstoppable was not enough when competing against Slytherin. 

Elijah had convinced the girls to join their chess adventures, but they politely declined. It seemed as if they had goals of their own that needed to be achieved. So it was solely up to the first year boys to win the chess tournament.

After a bit of research, Elijah learned that only three Gryffindor students, two Hufflepuff students, and seven Ravenclaw students had entered the competition. However, Ravenclaw’s mighty seven felt tiny compared to Slytherin’s twenty students. Not only this, but the four boys made up four of six first years who signed up. The other two first years were Barrow Silverling - a Slytherin - and Emma Bradshaw. Elijah did not know the other three Ravenclaw students who signed up, except for Holden Ollivander - the prefect who led them around the castle when they arrived. He had been teaching them tips and tricks that he had learned from participating in previous competitions. 

On the coffee table in the common room, the boys played chess for hours. When two boys were playing, the other two were watching. Forrest would play Elijah, and Elijah would usually win. Sterling would play Oliver, and Oliver usually won. They would rotate and switch, only taking occasional snack breaks. 

They were all dressed in their white dress shirts with a grey sweater vest on top. All of their hair had grown about an inch since the beginning of the school year. Oliver’s flat brown hair was almost always covering his eyes, while Forrest’s curly hair grew another inch outward from his head.

Collectively, the boys knew that they had a great chance of winning if they played carefully. Wizard chess was all about patience and foresight. They all held a good amount of foresight, but had varying levels of patience. Sterling would often fault because he got bored and wanted the game to be over. Forrest was patient but anytime he lost a piece, he would get nervous and make stupid mistakes. Elijah was best when he didn’t have an audience looking at him, as he cracked under pressure easily. Oliver, on the other hand, never seemed to be affected by his surroundings or any other external forces. This would be great news, but Oliver was a long way from being a prodigy. They all knew that Elijah would be the best bet for winning the competition. 

* * *

“Still going at it?” Zahra said in disbelief as she and the other girls entered the common room. Oliver and Forrest were staring at the chess board, it was Forrest’s turn to make a move. 

“We’re going to win,” Sterling said, looking up at them. “Just look at them go,” he beckoned the girls to watch the two boys play. Still deep in thought, neither moved any pieces. Oliver looked up at the girls, hair dangling in his eyes, waiting for them to leave. 

“Oh yeah, look at them go,” Zahra said sarcastically. “Well, we’d love to stay and watch, but we have to get going,” she nodded over to the door to signal the girls to leave. Hazel and Fern left the common room, but Zahra still stood by the couch.

“What?” Sterling asked.

“Royce Burke is competing in the chess tournament,” she waited for a response.

“Who?” Elijah said after a moment of silence.

“He’s a sixth year from Slytherin,” she paused, still no response. “He won the tournament last year.”

“Oh!” The boys said. “We’ll win though.”

“I don’t know…” Zahra walked towards the door to leave. “Good luck though,” she turned and smiled at the boys. They stared at her as she left the common room.

“They can’t leave us alone can they?” Sterling said, rolling his eyes and smirking. Elijah was worried that the other boy thought they were flirting with him or something. Nobody cared enough to respond, so they continued to the game of chess. It ended when Oliver took Forrest’s rook, blocking his bishop and winning him the game.

“Checkmate,” Oliver said quietly, looking at Forrest.

* * *

By the end of the day, Elijah had won a total of ten matches, Sterling had won eight, Forrest six, and Oliver five. They were all tired, and burnt out of playing. They all shuddered each time they heard the words ‘king’ or ‘queen’ - which they only heard because some fifth year Ravenclaws were studying the history of French magical kingdoms. 

“Alright lads,” Elijah tutted. He stood on the trunk in front of his bed whilst the other boys got ready to go to sleep. “We have put in a great day of hard work, and we are one step closer to winning the chess tournament and consequently winning the house cup.”

“Hurray!” Forrest said enthusiastically after spitting the toothpaste froth from his mouth. This elicited a weak “hurray” from Sterling as well, and a fist held up by Oliver to show solidarity. 

“I am proud of you boys!” Elijah waited for the compliment to sink in before adding, “But tomorrow we need to play forty matches.” 

“No!” Forrest and Sterling whined. “If I never see a chess set again, it’ll be too soon,” Forrest dramatically threw his head down, looking quite sorrowful.

“I don’t  _ want  _ to,” Sterling slouched over, putting his head in between his knees.

“I don’t either,” Elijah said empathetically. “But we have to. We  _ have  _ to win the house cup, we’ve come this far. I am beginning to hate chess as much as you guys, but I love the thought of winning more than I hate playing chess. We are catching up to Slytherin, we are only seventy-five points behind them, and Gryffindor is fifty points behind us. I calculated it, and if we keep it up, we will be in the lead by winter break.”

After Elijah invoked the bare minimum encouragement into his pals, he fell asleep, dreading the next day of chess. As he drifted out of consciousness, he began to dream of something peculiar, but not unexpected. 

_ He was sitting on top of a horse. The cold stone rubbed against his bare legs. He looked ahead to Oliver sitting on a white marble horse, hugging the horse’s neck. A voice boomed “ROOK TO A-4.” Forrest’s giant head was behind the army of white chess pieces, and it seemed as though Elijah and Oliver had shrunk to be the size of the pieces. The rook barreled forward, destroying the bishop that once held the A-4 spot. A chunk of black colored stone barely missed Elijah’s head, and the rubble sprinkled his black robe. _

_ “KNIGHT TO A-4.” Now it was Sterling’s voice, comically posh. He looked behind his shoulder, staring into Sterling’s baby blue eyes - his pupils the size of boulders. The horse he clung to began to shift, one spot forward, and three spots to the right. The black horse neighed, lifted its front two legs, and toppled the rook. Elijah was now choking on the dust that penetrated the air.  _

_ Forrest had a wicked grin on his face, a smile that could only precede terror. “QUEEN TO A-4.” There was a brief moment of silence before the white chess piece tore through the chessboard. He was only able to make a brief second of eye contact with Oliver before he realised there was no way he could help. Nobody could help him. The queen was on a collision course with Elijah and the horse.  _

_ “NO!” he screamed. As white filled his visual field, Elijah felt the quick and painful impact. _

He jolted awake, gasping for air. Everything was okay. He was safe, in his dorm room with Sterling to his right, and Oliver over to his left. He glanced at the clock, he could only partially read it since it was so dark, but it wasn’t even past midnight. 

He laid awake, staring at the ceiling that now showed constellations in place of a watery reflection. Grotto began meowing as Elijah pulled him up to his chest.

“Shh you idiot,” he whispered, worried that his loud meowing would wake up one of the other boys. Sterling moved, but he was just turning to his other side. Elijah stroked Grotto’s sleek and shiny fur. The silence in the room was briefly interrupted by soft snoring from Oliver, until he moved his head and it ended. 

Things felt good. They were peaceful. Elijah was right where he wanted to be. Though life was stressful, life was great, for both him and for the other boys as well.


	9. FIRST YEAR: Sterling's Birthday

_But every time it rains_

_You're here in my head_

_Like the sun coming out_

_Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen_

_I don't know when_

_But just saying it could even make it happen_

_-Kate Bush (Cloudbusting)_

_October 14th, 1985_

The Friday before Sterling’s birthday, the four boys eagerly watched Professor Vector post the chess match pairings for the tournament. The thirty-two person bracket was full. Slytherins filled the left half of the bracket, with Elijah and Forrest playing on the left. His first opponent would be a girl called Victoria Cerbus. He would later find out that she was a fourth year, and the older sister to Clover Cerbus, a black haired, mean-looking witch in his year. 

On the left hand of the bracket, Sterling was playing a Slytherin, and so was Oliver. He noticed Emma’s name on the left side as well. She’d be playing a Hufflepuff first round. 

He then scanned for the notorious Royce Burke. He was in the first line on the right side of the bracket. _Bollocks_ , he thought. 

Although Elijah had grown much more confident in his chess skills, he had still cowered at the thought of playing against Royce. He had never seen Royce in person, but he imagined him as a brutish, scary, snarling Slytherin. What scared him even more than playing against him, was the thought of winning. Would Royce come after him? Would Elijah have to keep Sterling, Forrest, and Oliver around him at all times and escort him to class? These were scary thoughts that he would just have to ignore for now.

In the two days since the listing was posted, the boys had played more chess than they ever thought they would be able to. Occasionally Holden would stop studying to play a round or two with the boys. Surprisingly, Fern had played a round with each of the boys. She was quite good, but lost to each of them.

Apparently Fern played a lot of chess before she went to Hogwarts. She said that she used to play after school as part of a club, and she blamed her consecutive losses on the fact she had not played in months. It would be unfair to say that she was bad at chess, since the boys obviously had put much more time in the game.

Fern was muggle-born, so she was also not used to playing with animated chess pieces. Elijah found it funny, that she was muggle-born. She seemed to fit in so well, and performed magic just as well as Zahra and Hazel. She was quiet, but she could also be funny. Her eyes were dark brown, and from far away they blended with her pupils, making her eyes look black. It matched well with her hair. 

When they were not playing chess, they were researching their opponents. They tried to sneak into the Slytherin common room, but failed. Consequently, they were cursed by a group of fourth years. It was the _Lapifors_ spell, which ended up with the four boys being turned to rabbits. They had to shamefully hop their way back to Ravenclaw tower. 

They had not found out much, except for when they asked Professor Vector for any tips on the competition. Aside from being the Arithmancy teacher, she coached the chess club and proctored the tournament. She reminded Elijah of one of the teachers he had in his muggle primary school. She was about forty, and had long dark hair and a kind smile. This was probably just a face she put on for the first years, as Elijah had heard the older Ravenclaws complain about her strict demeanor and heavy homework load. 

It was Saturday, during her office hours when the four boys poured into her empty office, begging her for advice that would win them the competition.

“I applaud your determination, boys,” she smiled at them, the way adults smiled at overly-ambitious children. “But I’m afraid I don’t have a great answer for you.”

“Professor Vector, what have you noticed about past winners? Any similar traits? Similar game tactics?” Elijah asked.

“Well, Royce Burke, the winner last year,” she began, “He played to win. It was clear from the start. He would have opportunities to win at the beginning of a game, but he would carry the game on. He wanted his opponent to think they had a chance at winning, but he knew that he had already won.”

“That’s sadistic!” Forrest said morosely. Vector shot a surprised look at Forrest.

“I’m not sure why you know that word, you’re eleven,” she whispered to herself. “Look boys, my best advice is play well, and play to win. And please realize when you’ve lost. I don’t want Royce to play another two hour match this year because his opponent was too stubborn to give up.” She looked at the four and said, “now go off and practice, that’s the only way you’ll win.”

“Thanks Professor Vector,” they said unenthusiastically while exiting her office.

“Any time boys,” she said while dreadfully looking at the pile of homework assignments she had yet to be graded.

* * *

This eventful and chess-filled weekend all lead up to Sunday. The boys would not have even known it was Sterling’s birthday if he hadn’t mentioned it almost every single moment they were together for the past three weeks.

“My dad’s coming up tomorrow,” Sterling said last night.

“Uh huh,” Elijah said, not paying attention. Him and Forrest were deep in a match of chess.

“Because it’s my birthday tomorrow.” 

“So help me Godric, if he says it one more time I’m going to kill him!” he yelled at Forrest, ignoring the fact that Sterling was still sitting in the same room as them.

This annoyance quickly vanished the next day.

Sterling was up at nearly seven in the morning. He was wearing his blue striped pajamas. They fit him well, unlike Elijah’s pajamas that were severely baggy. Sterling’s pajamas looked like they were made of very soft fabric. They had buttons, chest pockets, even a collar. Everything about Sterling screamed rich. Sometimes it would annoy Elijah, but he would realize that it’s not Sterling’s fault his parents have money, and it’s not his fault that Elijah was jealous of him. 

Despite his exhaustive efforts, Sterling only managed to get the other three out of bed at ten. During that time, Sterling had to resort to reading and finishing up homework while the boys slept. 

After the boys had crawled out of bed, showered, and gotten ready for the day, they each gave Sterling a gift. Elijah presented him with a few stones that he enchanted to look like gold. Forrest humbly gave him a handful of colorful little pebbles. Sterling looked puzzled. 

“Er… thanks Forrest. They um… they smell nice.”

Oliver held out his hand, dumping even more small pebbles into Sterling’s hand. Elijah had an immense amount of amusement watching Sterling squirm, trying to thank them for the confusing gifts.

“Uh, what are these Oliver?” Sterling asked.

Oliver looked at him blankly for a moment, and then looked to Elijah. He looked back to Sterling. This had obviously gone off script. “Myrrh?”

The prank had been effectively ruined. Elijah threw his head back and groaned, “Jesus Christ!”

* * * 

Their gifts were pale in comparison to Sterling’s Father’s gifts. Elijah knew that he could not get a good gift for the boy who already had everything he wanted, so he decided to introduce some humor in the mix, to entertain himself at least.

After the boys ate lunch in the dining hall, they were met with Mr. Fauns. His name was also Sterling, which technically made Sterling “Sterling Jr.” However, that was a fact that Elijah was going to ignore if not completely forget. 

His father had a charming presence. He was tall, blonde, and exuded energy. Not the silly “dad” energy. It was a type of energy that was hard to explain.

He brought gifts for Sterling, but also for the other boys as well. He was once in Ravenclaw so he had a special place in his heart for his son’s friends. 

Eagerly, he passed out identical blue leather books. They felt like genuine leather, something Elijah was not used to. Upon further inspection Elijah realized it was not a book, but a diary. On the front, it had _EHS_ embossed in metallic letters. The ‘E’ and 'S' were a shiny silver, and the ‘H’ was much larger than the other two letters, and it was a dull bronze. Silver pieces of metal also protected the corners of the diary. He was curious to know how Sterling Sr. had found out his middle name. He looked over at the others and noticed their _SLF, ORL,_ and _FJI_ labeled journals.

There was a brief moment of confusion, as the boys wondered what on earth they would need a diary for.

“Oh!” Mr. Fauns realized something. “You boys probably have never seen these before have you?”

They shook their heads.

“Well look,” he said, pulling out one of his own. His was nearly identical to Sterling’s but was made of black leather instead of blue. 

He searched around Sterling’s desk to find a quill, which was in his upper right hand drawer. “Ah yes, come here boys,” he motioned for them to gather around him and his diary.

The quill carefully landed on the paper, and he began to draw a line. The quill made all sorts of turns, lines, and zig-zags before ending. It was a pyramid. By the looks of it, it was one of those ancient pyramids in Egypt that Elijah learned about in muggle school, complete with bricks and everything.

Mr. Fauns then began recanting a spell. It was one of the longest spells that Elijah had heard since he arrived at Hogwarts, filled with words and phrases all strung together. Slowly the pyramid began arising out of the paper. It was like a printer. After ten seconds or so, the pyramid was in full form, about the size of Mr. Fauns’s hand. He held it up to the boys, watching them marvel at his creation before taking his wand and igniting the pyramid. It burst into a handful of flames before completely turning to ash and dissipating into the air.

“And that’s just one thing you can do! I’m sure there is more you can do with it, you guys can play around with it.” 

“Thanks Mr. Fauns!” Elijah and Forrest said. 

“Hey how did you know my middle name?” Forrest asked, pointing at the bronze ‘J’ on his cover. 

“They send out a letter after each sorting ceremony! You didn’t know that?”

“No sir,” he sounded disappointed, like this was a class and he was supposed to know the answer. 

“I’ve got one more thing for you all!” He reached into his bag, and pulled out a small cake. There was no way that it could have been homemade, unless his family were professional bakers for a living. It was beautifully created, nothing like the other boys had ever seen. Even the house elves who made the food at Hogwarts could not have created something as magnificent as this cake. 

On top of a logo of a raven, it read “HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY STERLING JR” in silver icing. The cake itself was white, but it was covered up with a layer of blue fondant that made it all the more sugary. To say that Sterling’s birthday cake was delicious would be a severe understatement. 

They were all grateful for the gifts and the food, but by the time Mr. Fauns had left, and it was just the boys again, they all felt a little awkward. They were all a little jealous of Sterling. None of them belonged to a pure-blood family, and it was easy to tell that Sterling’s life had been inherently better than theirs. 

The mood eventually returned to normal by the time they went down to the dining hall for dinner. Most of Ravenclaw had been hearing about Sterling’s impending birthday for at least the past two weeks and were completely sick of it, so it was no surprise that nobody sang him happy birthday at dinner. 

The boys spent the majority of dinner drawing bananas in their journals, and reciting the surprisingly easy incantation that Mr. Fauns said earlier. Once the paper bananas had been created, the boys would toss them at unsuspecting Hufflepuffs. 

* * *

By the end of the day, the four boys had created enough paper food items to feed a large family. While Elijah was busy drawing basic shapes like apples and bananas, Oliver had moved on to more complex foods like a bowl of pasta and tiramisu. 

They were all grateful to have not played chess today. It was a nice break, and Elijah hoped that it meant they would all be ready to practice more tomorrow. 

Every time he thought about the chess tournament, his stomach dropped a little bit. He was worried that they would lose, and this all would’ve been for nothing. He absolutely could not bear the thought of letting his friends down. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized something: he had spent so much time playing chess, that he didn’t realize that it was also time well spent with them. They were all in it together, whether they won or not, Slytherin wouldn’t be able to take away the countless hours and roughly 350 matches they played between themselves.

With this knowledge, Elijah found comfort. He knew that whatever is meant to happen will happen. And he knew that no matter what, he’d always have those three boys with him. 

*. * *

It was nearly midnight when Elijah woke up. He turned to his side to try to fall asleep again, but he noticed that Sterling’s bed was empty. Elijah quietly got out of bed, not wanting to wake the other boys, and especially not wanting to wake Grotto, as that would guarantee a loud hiss. 

Light poured out of the bathroom, into a thin veil of light that stretched across the room. The door was slightly ajar, which felt like permission to go and investigate. As Elijah edged closer, he heard something. When he put his head close to the door, he could hear Sterling, softly crying.

Elijah never found out why he was crying. And he never found out if Sterling saw him. But that was the last day that Elijah assumed that Sterling had a perfect life.

  
  



	10. FIRST YEAR: The Chess Tournament

_ October 31st, 1985 _

All of the ghosts of Hogwarts were having a particularly fun day. Halloween was practically the only day of the year that they could roam the castle freely. Unlike any other day, they were not scolded and sent back to their part of the building by Filch or McGonagall. This was the day that they could wreak havoc amongst the students or simply stretch out their legs, but for most ghosts it was the former option. 

During that lunch, Elijah had invited Sophia to eat with him and the Ravenclaw boys. There was a wonderful selection of Halloween themed food. Elijah loved the different holidays, and he heard that the Halloween feast at dinner was one of the most iconic parts of the school year. He was sad that he was going to miss it for the chess tournament. 

Elijah really wanted Sophia to get along with his pals, but he did not think she did. She tried to strike up a conversation with Oliver, but obviously that didn’t go well. Sterling came off as brash and arrogant, and Sophia did not laugh at Forrest’s jokes much, which sent his confidence spiraling.

His class afterwards was astronomy, followed by potions. He was beginning to hate his potions class. Him and Oliver constantly bested the rest of the class, but they never performed well enough for Snape. Elijah would get in trouble for answering too many questions, whereas Oliver would get in trouble for not answering enough questions. He really found potions to be an interesting subject, though he could do without handling the dead lacewing flies, and he found Snape to be an abhorrent instructor. 

Astronomy usually caused Elijah to fall asleep. Half due to the lethargy caused by his lunch, part caused by the boredom of the class. Professor Sinistra was a nice enough professor, but it was arguably the most boring subject, and it felt like most of the time she was teaching directly to the Hufflepuffs because they had a harder time understanding. Elijah thought he probably had an unfair advantage, as he usually fell asleep under a magical map of the universe on his ceiling.

He had finally found Royce, after Zahra pointed him out at the Slytherin table. Elijah was surprised, he did not look as intimidating as he thought he would. He had short black hair that was combed over just like Elijah’s hair. But he was certainly not as brutish as his other Slytherin peers. In fact, he was very small for a sixth year, and looked quite young for his age. Elijah certainly would have mistook him for a third year if Zahra hadn’t told him. Not only was his size different from the other Slytherin’s, but his general demeanor as well. Whereas most of the kids at his table looked generally maniacal, he was often smiling and laughing with a few of his friends at the end of the table. If he was not wearing that green lined robe, he could easily be a Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor.

He also spotted Victoria, the fourth year that he would compete with first. She was much taller than him. She was the typical Slytherin so it seemed, as she was constantly laughing at others. She looked like if she was a dog, she’d be the kind that would bite. 

Though he was always a little nervous, he tried to replace this anxiety with excitement instead. All he could think about was beating Royce and winning the competition. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to win for personal glory, or if he wanted to win for his friends. Elijah guessed it was just a little bit of both.

Elijah wanted to find Emma Bradshaw to figure out if she was any good at chess, but he had no idea how that conversation would go. He never started anything if he hadn’t got a clue about what would happen. He wouldn’t even know where to start. First he’d have to walk up to a table full of Gryffindors - which is scary enough. Then he’d have to awkwardly ask her if she remembered him from the trolley… and then what? He would say “ _ Are you good enough at chess that I need to worry about it? _ ” That would be absurdly brash, and phrases like that were only for Sterling to say - he’s the only one who could pull off a question like that. It would just be best for him to leave it alone. 

He made a copy of the bracket, and copied down the rules for the tournament. There would be six rounds. The first round, all of the players played - half would be eliminated, half would move on to the second round. After the second round, there would be eight players left, and after that there would be four. The fourth round would include the top two players of the left side of the bracket - hopefully Elijah and Royce - and the fifth round would be the top two players from the right side of the bracket - hopefully Oliver or Sterling would be included in those two. Then the sixth match would pair the winner from the right side and the winner from the left side. It was expected to take about three hours, but that was a generous estimate. Elijah was prepared to take all night. 

Elijah was thankful, because the first three rounds were played in private rooms, with Vector occasionally checking in on each match. But the last three matches were held out in the open, where there would be an audience. Sterling had invited the girls to come watch the semifinal rounds, which made Elijah extremely nervous. As good as he had gotten with chess, he still never got used to people watching him play. 

As the group of boys, followed by Sophia, went to leave, he noticed Royce standing with his friend. They were too far away for Elijah to hear anything, but he saw Royce mouth something to a blonde-haired girl a few seats down. She swung her legs around the bench, and furiously stood up marching towards him. He started laughing harder. Instead of pulling out her wand, she slapped her hand across his face, with enough force to send his head in that direction. She stormed out of the dining hall, her face bright red. As she exited, the ghost of the Fat Friar flew down the dining hall, shattering every drinking glass on every table. 

* * *

Professor Vector effectively put everyone to sleep while reading the rules of the tournament. After talking for almost half an hour, the students were sent to little cubicles to play the first round of chess.

Victoria, known as Vicky by her fellow Slytherins, was an especially frightening individual. She towered over him. He frightfully looked up into her green eyes. She arched one eyebrow as she shook hands with him. She was clearly confused that her opponent was so young. 

“Victoria,” her eyes pierced his soul. Her hand was ice cold, as if it had lost all blood circulation. 

“Elijah,” he said quickly, before pulling his hand away. 

“Pleased,” she uttered somewhat sarcastically.

He was surprised that he was not nervous about the match. Usually this kind of pressure would send him spiraling, but it was only the first round so he knew that he would most likely win anyway. He was nervous, however, about Sterling, Oliver, and Forrest. If any of them got eliminated in the first round, that would be tragic. He wished he could at least see their faces, but the cubicles prevented anyone from seeing any other players. 

Elijah picked up his white pawn in front of the bishop on the right and moved it forward one space. This was the opening he always used in his matches with the other boys. Starting a chess match was always difficult. You had so many options, which eventually dwindled, but at the beginning the amount of choice was overwhelming. It was best to keep the same opening strategy and stick with it.

This worked out in Elijah’s favor. It seemed as though Victoria was only a novice player, as she was more focused on trying to take as many of Elijah’s pieces without protecting her important pieces. Fifteen moves in, she had most of his pawns and a knight, but he had both of her bishops, a rook, and a knight. 

He knew that he was going to win after he took her other rook. There was nowhere left for her queen to go, and her queen was virtually the only protection she had for her king. She had locked most of her pawns in place, and it was just a matter of time before he closed in on her king and queen.

Professor Vector made her lap around the cubicles, and noticed the match between Elijah and Victoria and made an “mmm” sound. 

Only seven moves afterwards, his bishop slid to the opposite side of the board, violently knocking her queen onto the floor. She sighed and bit her lip. The hope that she was holding on slipped between her fingers. She carefully picked up her king and placed him down sideways. They both stood up. 

“I forfeit,” she said. Elijah felt sorry, but he was also very excited. She reached out her hand. “Good game,” her tone had turned into a more cheery one.

“Good game,” he repeated. Her hand didn’t feel as cold anymore.

* * *

Oliver had already finished his game when Elijah walked to the waiting area. 

“Did ya win?” Elijah asked. Oliver nodded.

Minutes later Sterling joined them touting another Ravenclaw victory, then followed Forrest with more good news.

After everyone finished, Vector posted the new matches for round two and a notice that they would begin after a fifteen minute break. Elijah would be playing Aurora Lestrange, another Slytherin, next round. Oliver would be playing a Hufflepuff, Sterling and Forrest would both be playing Slytherins - Forrest against Barrow Silverling. 

Emma had won her first match against a third year Hufflepuff girl. Elijah walked up to her, while they were waiting for the second round to begin. She was much more easy to approach when she wasn’t surrounded by a whole table of Gryffindors. 

“Glad to hear you made it past the first round,” Elijah said.

“Thank you!” she beamed. “This is a lot of fun! I’m not too invested, but I hope I win next round too! It was such a thrill. I haven't played for quite a while, and I forgot how much I enjoy playing,” her tone was overwhelmingly bubbly. 

He made conversation with her for a little bit longer, ending with both of them wishing the other luck for their next matches. He retired back to the group of young boys sitting in the corner.

“Just a few more rounds, and then we will have won!” Everyone was jovial. The boys went from making up one-eighth of the participants to one-fourth. Even better, one of the older Ravenclaws made it into the second round, but they were competing against Royce, so it was safe to assume that he would beat them.

Once the fifteen minute break was up, he trudged into a different cubicle with Aurora. She was a little more stout than Victoria, and was younger as well. She skipped the niceties and went straight into the game. She was white this time, so she had the first move.

Aurora had an annoying habit of clicking her long fingernails on the table anytime she was thinking. Her appearance reminded him of Fern, except she was much paler. Her skin was very white, and her hair was just the opposite: jet black. She kept her hair up in a ponytail, unlike Fern’s messy braid.

She also commanded the chess pieces in such a confident way. Her chess style wasn’t too reliant on offense like Victoria’s was. She paid much attention to both offense and defense. Elijah had to take longer to think before making each move, because Aurora kept all of her pieces cleverly guarded.

Although she saw through most of his tricks, he eventually caught her off guard, sneakily topping her queen quite early in the game. The look of shock on her face was almost comical to Elijah, and he knew that Forrest would get a kick out of that when he eventually got the chance to tell him. 

At some point he sacrificed his rook just to take her bishop. Elijah hated losing one of his rooks, they were his favorite pieces. 

Elijah had to enact some artful maneuvering to trap her king, blocking him with a rook, a pawn, and a bishop.

“Checkmate,” he said, a twinkle in his eye and a flame in his chest. She stood up and huffed, leaving the room without shaking his hand. As scary as Victoria was, at least she had good sportsmanship.

* * *

Apparently, his chess match with Aurora had gone on longer than he thought. He walked into the waiting room, and saw Oliver, Forrest, and Sterling sitting together in silence. Forrest was hunched over, his elbows on his knees, and his head down.

“What happened?”

“Barrow Silverling is what happened,” Forrest whispered sulkily. Elijah quickly turned his head to look at Barrow sitting at the opposite side of the room. He kind of looked like Royce, except a little less scheevey. Except, Barrow looked like a normal first year, with average bodily proportions. Royce was a sixth year with the chest width of a second year, and the face of an average Azkaban prisoner. 

Vector posted the third round pairings. On the left side it read:

_ Arlie Partridge (4) - Slytherin _

_ Royce Burke (6) - Slytherin _

and

_ Elijah Summers (1) - Ravenclaw _

_ Barrow Silverling (1) - Slytherin _

On the right side it read:

_ Blaire Wolf (5) - Slytherin _

_ Sterling Fauns (1) - Ravenclaw _

and

_ Oliver Lyptus (1) - Ravenclaw _

_ Emma Bradshaw (1) - Gryffindor _

It was shocking to see that many ‘1’s, given it was the third round and more than half of the competitors were first years. This would be the last round that they played in the grubby little cubicles. In just fifteen minutes, he’d be playing his third round with Barrow. 

During that short time frame, Elijah and Sterling tried their best to console a forlorn Forrest. They were mostly trying to keep him from leaving, because if he did, that would have definitely killed the spirit. Forrest was never going to leave his friends, but he enjoyed making them think he would. He enjoyed watching them worry about him. 

Nearly ten minutes of verbal affirmations spewed by Elijah and Sterling, Forrest dropped the ‘feeling sorry for himself’ charade and told Elijah to kick Barrow’s ass.

As they left to go back to their new cubicles, Forrest yelled,

“Avenge me Elijah!” loud enough for Barrow to hear. 

Barrow was much less intimidating than Victoria and Aurora. This was due to his age most likely. He didn’t know why, but older students usually scared him, except for Sophia of course. 

“Elijah Summers.” This time Elijah initiated the greeting. He held out his hand and shook Barrow’s.

“Barrow Silverling.” They took a seat. Barrow played white, while Elijah was black again.

After the boring opening that took place Barrow broke the silence while thinking over his next move.

“I didn’t think you and your crew would get this far.” Elijah didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. “It’s impressive, I’ll give you that.”

“Thanks,” Elijah felt awkward. He didn’t know what Barrow was trying to get at. Maybe he was genuinely trying to be friendly. 

“Aurora was  _ so  _ mad, almost in tears,” Barrow began laughing. “It was  _ hilarious _ !” 

“She wasn’t very nice,” he said. “She just huffed and left.” 

“Oh yeah, they’re all like that,” Barrow smirked. “All the Slytherin girls, I mean. Prissy and overdramatic.” He moved his knight to C-7. 

“Most of the Slytherin’s are scary,” he looked up and made eye contact with Barrow for a brief moment. “Or that’s what I’ve been told at least.”

“Not me,” Barrow exhaled, “There are quite a few bad ones in Slytherin, but I’m not one of them.” There was a brief pause. “I just like to win.” 

“Me too,” Elijah said. “Maybe I should have been in Slytherin.” He only said this to see what Barrow’s reaction would be.

“Nah,” he said casually. “The sorting hat’s always right.” Elijah moved his pawn. “Plus, I heard you and the quiet boy are quite the students in charms.”

“Oh yeah, where’d you hear that?” Elijah let out a small chuckle. 

“Word gets around.” He moved his rook. There was another pause. Elijah was trying to concentrate on the game. “Flitwick talks nonstop about you two.” This caused Elijah to blush. “He might just be biased. It’d make sense, you both  _ are  _ in Ravenclaw.” Elijah moved his knight.

_ No. Wrong move. No. God dammit. Please don’t notice. Please, please don’t notice. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!  _

His stomach dropped as Barrow took his queen with a knight. 

_ How could I be so stupid? Was he just talking to me to distract me? And I fell for it? I am pathetic! What do I do now? Play it cool? I am so mad at him. I hate him. Do I want him to think that I hate him? Just take his knight and try your best to win. It’s going to be okay. Even if you lose, Oliver and Sterling are still playing. It’ll be okay. _

“Rook to F-8.” The black tower demolished the white horse. 

After a few more moves, Elijah quickly realized that Barrow had the same strategy as Victoria. Strong on offense, but he lacked defense. He talked with Elijah to distract him, and to get him focused on the offensive strategy he was playing. This is probably why he beat Forrest. Elijah guessed that Barrow had gone all out and tried to take as many pieces as he could from Forrest. Luckily, Elijah found out what Barrow was doing soon enough and it wasn’t too late. 

Elijah had to thoroughly analyze Barrow’s weak defense to see what the best course of action would be. The first item on the agenda would be to get his rook on the other side of the board. Then he could sneak his bishop in and take Barrow’s queen. 

His plan worked like a charm, and sacrificed his rook to take the other boy’s queen. In just three more moves, Barrow would be in check. Two moves after that, it was checkmate.

“That was a good game. I thought I had you,” Barrow reached out a friendly hand. “And sorry for beating your friend.”

* * *

This time Elijah returned, Sterling was the sullen one. He had lost his match against Blaire, but he was not nearly as upset as Forrest initially was. Elijah figured that Sterling probably got tired of playing so he lost on purpose. Fortunately, Oliver had won his match against Emma. From the looks of it, she was not upset. Oliver was the type of person that someone wouldn’t mind losing to. Apparently she wanted to stay to watch Oliver’s next round. The final pairings were up.

_ Royce Burke (6) - Slytherin _

_ Elijah Summers (1) - Ravenclaw _

and

_ Blaire Wolf (4) - Slytherin _

_ Oliver Lyptus (1) - Ravenclaw _

These rounds would be played one at a time, with an audience. First Elijah and Royce, then Oliver and Blaire. Although most of the people who lost had left, there was still Emma. Holden, and another older Ravenclaw that Elijah hadn’t learned the name of. 

The fifteen minute waiting period was agonizing to Elijah. His anxiety finally emerged. He kept looking over at Royce, who was talking to a few of his Slytherin friends that came to watch him play. They had come to watch him win. Hopefully they would leave unsatisfied.

Minutes turned into seconds as Elijah approached the table in the middle of the room. He looked over at Sterling, Forrest, Oliver, and now Emma, sitting on the other side of the room. Royce Burke walked up to the table, he was scrawny and had ugly teeth that appeared when he smiled. They shook hands and sat down. 

Elijah was white this time. He always felt more confident playing white, so this was a good sign. He opened in the same as usual, and tried his best to keep a balanced offense and defense. 

What followed in the next forty-five minutes was quite possibly the most dramatic game of chess that anyone has ever played - or watched. Pawns fell on their swords to protect their king, husbands lost wives, horses neighed their last neigh. Even Professor Vector was on the edge of her seat.   
It was hard to believe that this wasn’t the final match. It all felt so _ultimate_.

They were almost at the eightieth move, when Royce took Elijah’s queen. Elijah felt the pit in his stomach grow. He knew that he was going to lose. He had known for a while now. Professor Vector’s advice crept in the back of his mind.  _ Realize when you’ve lost _ . He didn’t want to admit it. It all felt so embarrassing. He put in so much effort.

_ I’m so naive. I’m so dumb. _

His cheeks were hot and turning bright red.

He gently placed his king on its side.

He stood up, and shook Royce’s hand.

He held back tears as he went back to sit with his friends. 

Emma patted his shoulder, and Forrest gave him some words of encouragement that he didn’t pay attention to. Oliver and Blaire were now sitting at the same table he just left.

* * *

They had to hurry. Elijah agreed to get the girls, Sterling would get Flitwick, and Forrest would get anyone else who would listen. Emma even left to get her friends from Gryffindor. Everyone had to be there. 

He ran into the common room, panting. After a quick scan of the room, he saw that they weren’t there. He ran into the girls dormitory. There they were. Zahra, Fern, and Hazel, all studying on the floor. 

“He’s done it!” Elijah shouted, a smile on his face brighter than the sun itself.

“Are you mad?” Hazel yelled. “You can’t just barge in here! We could have been changing!”

“Oliver made it to the final competition! He’s going to play against Royce Burke!” The girls finally understood that this was a barge-worthy announcement. “C’mon! He’s going to play soon! We have to get to the other side of the castle!” There was no possible way to contain his excitement. The girls hastily closed their books and put their quills away and followed Elijah. 

By the time they had gotten there, Flitwick was congratulating Oliver for making it to the finals. There was now a small group of Gryffindors surrounding Emma, and various Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws standing around. There had to be almost forty students in the room, which was much more impressive than the ten or so students that had watched Oliver’s glorious victory over Blaire Wolf. 

They didn’t have much time until the match started, so the four boys huddled in the corner, whispering between themselves.

“This is our chance! You’ve got this Oliver!” Elijah said.

“We have to beat these god awful Slytherins!” Forrest spat.

“For Ravenclaw!” Sterling chanted.

“For Ravenclaw!” They repeated, even though Oliver had the most adrenaline in his system, he still whispered ‘For Ravenclaw’. They lightly pushed him towards the table, where he met Royce Burke and shook his hand. 

Elijah felt nervous for Oliver. He had even more riding on his shoulders than Elijah did. But from what Elijah could tell, Oliver kept calm under pressure. A skill that he was most envious of. 

The energy in the room was comparable to a Quidditch game. There were cacophonies of groans and cheers any time a player lost a piece. 

Elijah was glad that he could see the chess board, and could tell how the game was going. Despite this privilege, he still could not tell who was winning. 

Luckily, the energy did not die after the first twenty moves. They were up to their seventy-fourth move and it seemed to be wrapping up. All of the student spectators were just as invested as when they first started watching. 

In one fell swoop, Oliver’s knight struck down Royce’s rook. Elijah couldn’t believe his eyes. Burke’s mouth was left wide open.

“Checkmate,” Oliver said, looking up at Royce. 

He did it. He beat Royce. He won the tournament. There were screams of victory coming from nearly every student. Sterling and Elijah ran up to Oliver and hoisted him on their shoulders, touting him around like a trophy. For the first time since Elijah met Oliver, he laughed. Emma started chanting “O-LIV-ER!” The rest of the Gryffindors followed suit. Forrest waved his wand and bolts of confetti shot out, covering Oliver and the boys holding him up. 

Professor Vector tapped the plaque on the wall with her wand.  _ Royce Burke Wizard Chess Champion 1984  _ magically transformed to  _ Oliver Lyptus Wizard Chess Champion 1985 _ . 

Elijah was glad that Royce beat him. This was worth it. This was better.


	11. FIRST YEAR: The Agreement

_ December 8th, 1985 _

__ It was about two in the afternoon when Elijah decided to finish his herbology report in the library. Elijah opened the door to leave Ravenclaw tower. The cold air enveloped his body. It was foggy outside again. It had been a disgusting grey mix of foggy and cold all week. He could see his frosty breath in the air every time he exhaled. He wished that he was in a different house so he wouldn’t have to go outside every time he left the tower. 

There were only two weeks left until winter break. Near the beginning of the semester, Elijah was not looking forward to the break, since nobody was allowed to leave. But over the course of the last few weeks, he found that he was excited for break.

He had not so much as looked at a chess board since Halloween. However, Elijah had grown to enjoy walking around the castle. There were many different routes to his classes than he previously thought. He found an alternate path from his History of Magic class to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Fortunately, that meant he could get to class in four minutes while walking, instead of barely making in time. 

As he walked into the library he went to the back section to sit at his usual table. He enjoyed sitting in the potions section, since it was the least populated. As he was walking down, he noticed Oliver sitting at a table. He stopped, planning to walk up to him, but he was not alone. 

He walked closer as she came into perfect view. On the other side of the table, Emma Bradshaw. She had her long blonde hair back in a braid. She was reading a book with Oliver. Emma quickly noticed Elijah and waved to him to come over, which he did reluctantly. 

“Would you like to sit with us?” She said, perfectly pleasant.

“What are you guys doing?” He was surprised they were together.  _ Was this Emma’s idea? Was this even planned or did they just happen to be sitting at a table together? _

“Oliver is helping me with charms!”

_ Oof _ .  _ That hurt. She didn’t ask me? Does she know that Oliver doesn’t talk? _

“How’s that going?” he asked.

“Really well actually!” 

_ That wasn’t the answer I wanted, _ he thought.

Emma pulled out a few scrolls out of her bag, showing Elijah all of the notes she had written down. “Do you want to join? We are just going over Alohomora, and we were going to go around and test it out.” 

“Um, actually I have to work on my Herbology report and then go check on my Wiggenweld Potion. But good luck to you guys.” He tried his best to sound genuine but it did not work well. He quickly walked away to his corner. 

Elijah could barely focus on his Herbology homework. Every few minutes he peeked his head around the bookshelf and saw them sitting together.  _ That’s so weird _ .  _ Why didn’t she just ask someone in Gryffindor to help her? Does she even need help? Her sister is a fourth year, she could have just asked her! _

These thoughts raced through his mind, and it had been nearly half an hour since he sat down and there was still nothing written on his paper. He was so distracted that he didn’t even notice Emma and Oliver walk up to his table. 

“Hey Elijah, we are leaving now, but Oliver told me that you have a cat and I was just wondering if I could come over and meet her sometime?”

“What? Oh, um sure. Him, you mean. My cat’s a boy. Yeah that’d be fine.”  _ That was embarrassing _ .

“Awesome! I’ll see you later,” every word she said was unbearably enthusiastic.

He watched them leave, just to make sure they actually left, and then looked back down at his empty scroll. He rolled his eyes as he started scribbling notes down about the practical uses of Wormwood. 

* * *

That evening during dinner, Elijah received a letter. It was held in a navy blue envelope. Elijah tore it open, reading the neat handwriting that covered the parchment.

_ My dear Elijah,  _

_ Congratulations on being sorted into Ravenclaw! Your father and I are beyond proud of you. We tried sending you a letter sooner, but the rain would ruin all of them. We also heard about the chess tournament. Good job. We didn’t know that you liked chess!  _

_ We won’t be able to visit during winter break. Our jobs have been incredibly busy, and with the weather lately we are not sure that it would be safe. Please send a letter back. I want to know how classes have been going and if you have made any friends.  _

_ Love,  _

_ Mother _

Elijah folded up the letter and put it in the pocket of his robe, with his wand. He sat silently for a few moments, staring at the other side of the banquet hall.

“What’d it say?” Forrest said with a mouth full of mashed potatoes.

“Don’t talk while chewing your food,” Sterling said.

“Sorry,” Forrest said after shoving more food into his mouth.

“Nothing, just a letter from my folks. Wanted to know how I’m doing,” He didn’t want to share the bad news with anyone else.

He did hope, however, that he would get to meet either Forrest’s parents or Oliver’s parents. He was curious to see what kind of people raised Oliver. Elijah wondered if they would be as quiet and reserved as him. 

“Are any of your family coming up for winter break?” Elijah blurted.

He looked around at the boys, all shaking their heads. That made him feel a lot better. 

“Too far,” Forrest said. “And too cold.”

“Supposed to be the coldest winter in Britain since the 1800s,” Fern chimed in. “My mum’s a weather reporter for a muggle news station.” 

Although they sat with the boys during every meal, Elijah often forgot that the three girls were even there. They usually spent the entire meal period talking amongst themselves - usually quizzing each other about potion ingredients. The three of them had established themselves as the best students in the year at potions. Elijah and Oliver were good at written potion tests, but the girls made flawless potions - something the two boys struggled with.

The incident about Oliver and Emma in the library gnawed at the back of his mind. He  _ had  _ to know how that happened. 

“Oliver,” Elijah put both of his arms on the table and leaned forward. Oliver was just about to eat a fork-full bite of pot roast. He closed his mouth and put the fork down instead. Instead of saying “what?” he just sat, wide-eyed, waiting for Elijah to ask his question. “Was it your idea to go to the library with Emma?” 

“Yes.”

“Tell me more,” Elijah wanted to get to the bottom of this.

“She asked me where we should study, and I suggested the library.” 

“Wait, was it your idea to study?”

“No.” 

“Elaborate,” he commanded.

“She asked me to help her with charms.”

“When?”

“After I helped her with transfiguration.” Everything Oliver said just led to more questions. He truly was a complex person.

“When did this all start?” Elijah was growing impatient.

“School started September 2nd.”

“When did you start helping Emma with her classes?”

“November 3rd,” Oliver blinked.

“So you’ve been spending time with her every weekend for over a month.”

Oliver thought for a moment. “Yes.”

This gave Elijah a lot to think about. On one hand, he wanted to like Emma. But on the other hand, he couldn’t believe that she thought Oliver would be more helpful than him.  _ Was this because Oliver won the chess tournament. Does she think he’s smarter than me? Is he smarter than me?  _

Elijah considered the possibility that this was something completely different. Maybe Emma wanted to just be friends with Oliver. Maybe they had just connected really well during their chess match and Emma wanted to spend more time with him.  _ But why? What makes Oliver so special? _

He felt a wave of jealousy come over him. Emma wasn’t going to spend more time with Oliver than Elijah was. 

“Oliver,” Their eyes met. “I have to show you something later.”

* * *

“We aren’t supposed to be out this late,” Oliver said.

“Shh,” Elijah held a finger up to his mouth. “Then be quiet and we won’t get caught.” Elijah looked around the corner. Down the hall, Alma and Holden, two of the Ravenclaw prefects were making their rounds. They turned around the corner, and Elijah grabbed Oliver’s sleeve, guiding him down the hall. 

As they crossed the hall, the burning torches went out, leaving them in pitch black.  _ Lumos _ . Elijah’s wand emitted a weak light, but it was enough to get where they needed to go. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not far. Just another hallway to go.” 

They silently crept along the wall, and Elijah was carefully examining each painting. He finally stopped at a portrait of a sleeping woman, and gently lifted the frame up. The painting swung open like a door and the two boys quietly entered a perfectly dark room.

_ Lumos maxima _ . This time it was Oliver’s wand. The light was bright enough to fill the room. He walked over to the corner of the small room and put the wand on the floor, letting it dispel all of the darkness.

“Look,” Elijah pointed to a mirror being held by a beautiful golden frame. The two boys approached the mirror. They were no longer worried about being seen. 

“What is it?” Oliver asked. That felt as though it was the first time Elijah knew something Oliver didn’t. The incandescent white light from the corner hit the left side of Oliver’s face, illuminating his blue eye. 

“A mirror.” He stood behind Oliver and brought him in front of it. “What do you see?”

“Me,” he paused. “I’m signing books,” Oliver squinted his eyes to see better. “They are my books. I wrote them. I’m at Flourish and Blotts, signing my books.” He turned to Elijah. “What is this?” 

“I don’t know. Just found it one day.”

“What do you see?” 

“McGonagall. She’s giving me my head boy pin.” He turned back to Oliver. “It’s what I want more than anything.” 

There was a brief pause. The two boys stood admiring their dreams. Time stood still for a moment. 

Elijah wanted to say  _ “Why are you so quiet?” _

or  _ “Do you even like us?” _

or  _ “Why does Emma want to spend time with you?” _

But he didn’t ask any of those questions. Instead, he said, “Let’s not show anyone else this mirror, okay?” and Oliver nodded in agreement. They sat in the dusty, unused room for a little while longer before sneaking back into their beds.

“Oi, where were you two?” Forrest shouted across their room. Sterling was still asleep. 

“Nowhere,” Oliver whispered. Elijah smiled as he got in his bed. 


	12. FIRST YEAR: Winter Recess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little intense

_ December 21st, 1985 _

Since that night, Elijah made more of an effort to spend time with Oliver. He felt bad for not talking to him more. Luckily Oliver didn’t seem like the type of person to hold a grudge or even be cross with someone.

Emma eventually met Grotto. The boys had to tidy up their room so it was not embarrassingly messy when Emma visited. It was weird though, Emma was the first girl they had in their dorm. They weren’t even sure if she could come into Ravenclaw tower, but after questioning Holden, they learned that it was allowed. Elijah was sure that if a girl was going to enter their room, it would have been Zahra, Hazel, or Fern.

Winter recess officially began after Elijah turned in his second essay of the year to Professor Rosier. That was probably his favorite essay he’s written. The prompt was to write about an aspect of dark arts that interested him, and Elijah wrote about centaurs. He found that having the option to pick what his essay was about made it much more enjoyable. 

Elijah wanted to spend his winter break relaxing and reading some books on transfiguration spells he found in the library. This plan was soon crushed when Forrest ran into their room that Saturday evening. He started sliding on the wooden floor, and he aimed his wand at the book that Oliver was reading and shot a disarming spell at it. The book flew up in the air and onto the floor.

“What do you want Forrest?” Elijah asked. He got up and brushed the dust off of his pants.

“You’ll never believe what happened!” he yelled. Oliver pulled out his wand and levitated his book back onto his bed, too lazy to pick it up himself.

“Believe what?” Sterling asked. While this was going on, Oliver took his journal that he received from Mr. Fauns and drew an avocado, which he promptly and poorly threw at Forrest. It missed by three feet, and Forrest didn’t even so much as flinch. 

“A girl in Slytherin challenged Royce Burke to a duel!” He looked so excited at this news.

“What?” Elijah didn’t think he would hear that name again after the chess tournament. He wondered if it was the same girl that slapped him in the dining room on Halloween.

“C’mon they are going to the Quidditch pitch right now!” The boys quickly got up and followed Forrest out of Ravenclaw tower.

As they got to the common room he saw the girls chatting on the couch. Hazel rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t tell me you lot are going to watch that stupid duel.” 

“Hey it’s not stupid if it’s entertainment,” Forrest shrugged.

“I hope Burke gets what he deserves. He’s worse than most Slytherins,” Fern started. “And that’s saying a lot.” 

“Come with us!” Sterling shouted. She got up and followed them out of the tower.

There was a thin sheet of snow covering the grounds of Hogwarts. In the middle of the Quidditch pitch there was a small group of about fifteen students, all wearing their school robes. Most of them were Slytherins, surrounding a small Royce Burke.

As they approached, Elijah realized that it was actually two groups. The smaller group of students surrounded a small blonde girl. It was definitely the girl who slapped him. They approached the blonde girl. Her skin was pale, but her cheeks were red. The light breeze made the cold a little more bitter. 

Fern walked in front of the boys up to the blonde girl. At first Elijah thought she was going to tell her to call off the duel because they might get expelled, but instead she said, “Make him cry Helena.”

“You can do this,” a slightly taller blonde girl with glasses told Helena. “Just focus and remember what Professor Rosier taught us.”

“Thanks Raquel,” she said. Helena turned around and walked further out away from everyone. Royce did the same, standing about thirty or forty feet away from her, pulling out his wand. 

With wands pointed at eachother, Royce yelled “You fucking mudblood!” and he aggressively waved his wand. A bright orange ball of light shot from his wand straight for Helena. She flicked her wand and the spell was absorbed by a defense spell. 

Royce began firing spells quickly, all being deflected by Helena. She retaliated, sending a dark red bolt towards him, which was also deflected. She performed the same routine of rapid fire spells, except this time with more passion and vigor than Royce’s outburst. 

He could not keep up with the sheer volume of her attacks, and he eventually fell backwards into the snow. This caused the crowd of sneering Slytherins that once cheered him on to start laughing at him.

However, Helena did not stop. She kept violently shooting spells at him, and he attempted to defend himself while lying in the snow. She edged closer to him, while he layed helpless, waving his wand left and right. The wickedness he showed just a few moments ago quickly turned to fear. She shot a disarming spell, and his wand flew several feet behind him. She was now five feet in front of him. 

Three minutes ago, Helena was the underdog that they all rooted for. Now she looked terrifying. Royce, as well as the bystanders, hoped she would show him mercy. She didn’t. 

She raised her wand above her head, and swiped it down to her side. Royce winced. A thin line appeared across his face, from the top of his forehead to the end of his cheek. Blood started streaming down his face. 

He looked up at her. Her eyes felt so different, like she was a different person now. The red blood fell down his neck and dripped onto the snow. He kept crawling back towards the group behind him, too afraid to break eye contact with her. Two Slytherin boys helped him up and he began running back to the castle.

Even the group that surrounded Helena looked unsettled. Raquel ran up to Helena and grabbed her by her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Helena nodded. Raquel hugged her, and she seemed to calm down. Raquel began to escort Helena back to the castle, ready to defend her action to any staff member. Fern ran up to Helena and thanked her for doing that. 

The five of them walked back to the castle, leaving the disturbed sheet of white snow, now tainted with red splotches of blood. 

* * *

Elijah sensed the feeling that Zahra and Hazel slightly regretted not going to see the duel. 

“It was intense,” Fern said. Elijah thought she had been the most emotionally affected by it than anyone else, besides Helena of course.

He learned a while after the duel, after asking Sterling in private, what the term ‘mudblood’ meant. After learning, he realized why Helena and Fern hated Royce so much. He would have hated him too. He knew there was some distaste for muggle borns, but he didn’t think it was to this extent.

Word had spread that Royce was in the infirmary being treated by Madame Pomfrey. McGonagall had found out that Helena was the one who did it, which caused Slytherin to lose one-hundred points. 

Although this was a terrible situation, Elijah was ecstatic that Ravenclaw was now beating Slytherin by ninety-two points. And fortunately, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff looked like they were out of the race completely, both with under five-hundred points.

Elijah was also surprised that Helena knew so many spells, since she was only a first year. This caused him to go to the library and check out a book of dueling spells. He hated the thought of other students knowing more than him.

The seven first year Ravenclaws were about to succumb to boredom, but luckily Fern had brought Monopoly with her to Hogwarts for this exact situation.

Only Elijah, Fern, and Oliver had played Monopoly before, and it took quite a few tries to explain how it worked to Sterling. He was only used to wizard money, which was divided in weird ways. He kept mentioning that there were 29 Knuts in a Sickle and 17 Sickles in a Galleon, but nobody seemed to listen or care.

Elijah played as the top hat, Forrest picked the thimble, Sterling chose the boat, and Oliver got stuck with the boot. Zahra was the car, Fern was the wheelbarrow, and Hazel was the dog.

Elijah enjoyed playing with them, because Fern and Oliver were the only good ones. Plus, he was very lucky with his rolls so he ended up owning a lot more property than everyone else. He smirked everytime Forrest landed on St. James Place and owed him 30 pounds.

They played for hours before ending the game, with no winner. Sterling didn’t like the game because there wasn't enough action. Elijah told him that not every game had to be Quidditch. 

* * *

The next day, Elijah woke up and noticed a small wrapped present on the nightstand in between Elijah and Oliver’s bed. The tag on it said Oliver’s name. Oliver was sitting in his bed, rereading his book.

“Got your Christmas present early eh?” Elijah asked, his voice was groggy.

“I don’t think so,” Oliver said flatly. Elijah thought he was kidding, but then he realized Oliver was never kidding.

“When is your birthday Oliver?” 

“Today.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No I’m not.”

Elijah rolled his eyes. 

“You have to tell us this stuff Oliver.” Elijah took out his journal and drew a little crown that had “BIRTHDAY BOY” inscribed on it. He took the crown, and cast a spell on it, turning it blue. And placed it gently on Oliver’s head.

“Why?”

“That’s your punishment,” he paused and yawned, “For not telling anyone.”

Forrest was still asleep, but Sterling walked out of the shower, his hair darker now that it was wet. He was caught off guard by Oliver’s crown and he stopped and pointed at him.

“His birthday?” he asked Elijah.

“Yep. Didn’t plan on telling anyone either.” Oliver looked at them without moving his head. His eyes were only slightly visible under all of the hair. 

“Cheers then.”

His parents had sent him a few books about writing fiction stories. Apparently they knew of his dream to be an author. They were muggle books, so they didn’t have any moving pictures inside, but instead discussed muggle fiction topics. Elijah couldn’t believe that muggles didn’t know that dragons were real. 

Oliver did not take off his blue crown all day. Perhaps he was worried that Elijah would put it back on anyway. During dinner everyone in Ravenclaw sang him happy birthday, and were joined by the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs that witnessed his chess victory. Elijah could even see Barrow Silverling join in.

Against Oliver’s wishes, Sterling took the boys out to the Quidditch pitch to do some practice flying. The blood tainted snow was now removed. Sterling convinced Madame Hooch to let them spend an hour on the brooms since it was Oliver’s birthday, but they had to use the battered brooms. They couldn’t fly straight but it was still kind of fun. Forrest and Sterling went on either side of him and put their arms around Oliver, flying him up higher. For the first time, Oliver had been thirty feet up in the air.

After he said bring me down for the four-hundredth time, they finally descended and allowed him to happily fly ten feet off the ground for the remainder of the hour. Elijah was happy to sit with Oliver on the benches again while Forrest and Sterling poorly attempted to do spins. 

At the end of the day, when they got ready to go to bed, Elijah noticed the lock on the door become unlocked. Zahra walked in, followed by Hazel and Fern. They were both holding fingers over their mouths to signal the other boys to be quiet. Oliver was brushing his teeth in the bathroom. Hazel was holding a cake.

If Sterling’s birthday cake had been made by a professional, then Oliver’s cake was made by a blind person. It was a very tragic looking cake. It read “HAPPY 11 OLIVER LYPTUS” in red gel icing. Except the ‘y’ in ‘happy’, the ‘r’ in ‘Oliver’, and the ‘tus’ in ‘Lyptus”, were drawn onto the side of the round cake. So it looked more like “HAPP 11 OLIVE LYP”, which was nonsensical. Nonetheless it still looked like it would taste good.

When Oliver exited the bathroom, the girls shouted “Happy Birthday!” while holding up the cake.

“Happ 11 Olive Lyp?” He asked.

“It’s homemade!” Hazel shouted enthusiastically.

They sat in the boy’s dorm room, eating the birthday cake, which did in fact taste much better than it looked.


	13. FIRST YEAR: Christmas

_ Keep smiling, keep shining _

_ Knowing you can always count on me, for sure _

_ That's what friends are for _

_ For good times and bad times _

_ I'll be on your side forever more _

_ That's what friends are for _

_ -Dionne Warwick (That’s What Friends Are For) _

_ December 25th, 1985 _

The cracks in the floorboards collected bits of blue confetti every time a student walked across the common room. The tapestry that beautifully illustrated Rowena Ravenclaw tending to her unicorns had been enchanted to reflect the holiday. Instead of the diadem that graced her hair, there was now a red santa hat woven in the fabric. The first years were the only students to occupy the Ravenclaw Common Room. 

Christmas had arrived at Hogwarts. The inch of snow that had previously covered the grounds was now a foot of snow. Luckily, the head boy of Ravenclaw had gotten up early that morning to use a melting spell on the snow that collected on the stairwell leading from the tower to the main part of the castle. 

What was usually a joyous holiday, was now sullied by feelings of melancholy and fear. Even the prefects were having a hard time trying to find the silver linings to this situation. They were asked to decorate the common rooms to try to lift the spirit, but it was obvious that the Ravenclaw prefects did not put in their full effort. 

Elijah was sitting, casually writing down notes from his charms textbook with the new quills he received from his parents as a present. He also received a spellbook of ‘ _ Handy Spells for Young Wizards, _ ’ which included a spell that made vegetables taste like candy. Elijah rolled his eyes at that, but he knew he was definitely going to use it.

Oliver, who sat on the couch across from Elijah was busy trying to pick all of the confetti off of his socks. He had received even more books, and a red wool sweater vest, which he was wearing over his white dress shirt. 

In the biggest box Oliver received, was his smallest gift. A small green toad that croaked incessantly, and blinked one eye at a time. It was such an awkward and quaint amphibian, but it complemented Oliver’s personality very well.

“What are you going to name your toad Oliver?” Sterling asked.

Oliver was still deep in concentration, desperately trying to get the rest of the blue confetti off of his white sock. He quietly said, “socks,” trying to let Sterling know that he was too focused on the task at hand to respond.

“That’s a weird name for a frog!” Forrest yelled while grinning.

“I think it’s cute,” Hazel interjected. She was always disagreeing with someone.

Oliver got all of the debris off of his sock, and switched legs, starting to clean his left foot that was completely covered in little scraps of shiny blue plastic.

That morning had been especially quiet, and the seven children felt decently homesick. However, Fern had tried to keep spirits up by playing music from her radio. She had received several cassette tapes from her parents for Christmas.

Forrest got up and started dancing in the middle of  _ Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go _ . They all sat, allowing him to entertain them. He pulled Zahra up from the couch and started dancing with her, laughing the entire time. He spun her around, and she couldn’t stop smiling.

_ White Christmas  _ started playing. They all sat in silence, quietly admiring the vintage crackly song. They couldn’t help but feel sad.

_ I’m dreaming of a white Christmas _

_ Just like the ones I used to know _

Elijah wanted his parents. He wanted his brother. He wanted to wake up early in the morning and stare at the Christmas tree until his parents woke up. He wanted to smell coffee and to feel the warmth of the fireplace.

There were chestnuts once, he remembered. He was seven, and his parents had always wanted to roast chestnuts on an open fire, just like in the song. Chestnuts popped and hissed over the fire as they sat around the living room. They were all wearing matching red and white pajamas, it was the only time they did that. He knew that when he had a family, they would wear matching pajamas every Christmas. There were dozens of presents under the tree, meticulously wrapped to perfection by his mother. Elijah wished he could hear Nat King Cole’s rich baritone voice right now instead. 

* * *

“I’ve got an idea!” Elijah shouted while jumping off of the sofa. The other kids, having nothing better to do, looked over at him pacing around deep in thought. It was afternoon now, and the students had spent the day sulking and listening to muggle music. 

“What is it?” One of them asked.

“What if...” he was still pacing, “We played  _ hide-and-go-seek _ ?” Everyone looked at him like this was a childish game. Like this was a game that they were too mature for, despite all being children. “Oh don’t give me those looks, it’ll be fun!” He was behind the couch that Sterling and Forrest were sitting on, leaning between their heads. “Just think of it!” 

They thought for a moment.

“Nah,” Forrest waved his hand.

“Hear me out,” Elijah was quick to defend his idea. “All of the prefects,” he paused, “Almost all of the  _ upperclassmen  _ are in Hogsmeade right now!” 

That got their attention.

“We’ve practically got the entire castle to ourselves!  _ I  _ even heard that Filch left to go visit his family.” He smiled smugly, grateful that he had this exclusive information.

“How come he can leave and we can’t?” Hazel asked.

“The staff can do whatever they want.” He responded.

“That’s not fair!”

“ _ That’s  _ besides the point,” Elijah was annoyed by Hazel interrupting his spiel. “We can pair up! And give the other five about three minutes or so to hide somewhere in the castle!” 

“It’s a big castle,” Zahra said while filing her nails.

“S’worth exploring.”

“Fine,” Zahra said emphatically. “But on one condition.”

Elijah looked at her, “of course.”

“No hiding somewhere stupid,” she looked at Forrest, her eyes narrowing. “Or dangerous,” she added. “ _ And _ if we get in trouble, then this was all your idea.” 

“Deal,” a smile crept on his face. “Since it was my idea, I’ll seek first. Zahra you can help me find them.” 

“Fine,” she said standing up. Hazel and Fern looked up at her, standing up reluctantly. “C’mon, should be fun.”

* * *

Elijah and Zahra had to go back and get their school robes because it was so cold inside the castle. They guessed since they assumed most students would either spend the whole day in their dormitories or at Hogsmeade, there was no point in heating the castle. 

It felt strange. Mostly because the halls were empty and it was still daytime. You could still see the sunlight shine through the windows. There was no chatter between students to fill the castle. The only thing you could hear were the moving staircases that led to the dorms. They were loud and sounded like scraping bricks. That sound was usually drowned by the sound of other students, but now it was an inescapable sound. 

“So…” Elijah started. He was confident and energetic in front of a group, but one-on-one, he was slightly uncomfortable. The paintings along the walls eyed the two young students as they walked by. 

“Your folks not want to come up?” she asked.

“Nah, no one’s folks wanted to, I suppose. Bloody snow storm covered half the country.” They turned the corner towards the divination room. Elijah was talking in the way he talked to people he didn’t know that well. He shortened his words and talked in a lower voice, to show Zahra that he was cool. He did not interact with Zahra much, but he wouldn’t mind it. She seemed nice and smart, and maybe she could help him with his potions. Compared to Fern, she was a lot more extraverted, and compared to Hazel, she was much less annoying. 

“I don’t suppose they could be in here, could they?” They were looking around the divination room now. It was an open room, with amphitheater-style seating. It would not have been a good place to hide, unless you assumed Elijah and Zahra would have never even checked the room in the first place.  _ Maybe behind the curtains _ Elijah thought. No - just the windows. 

“Are Fern and Hazel the type of people to go where we would least suspect? Or are they one step ahead, and went to the place we would  _ most  _ expect, thinking that we would go to the place that we would least expect?”

“Hazel is the type of person to hide in plain sight. Fern is a wild card. She’s clever though.”

“How do you get on with them?” Elijah asked. It was a question that he wanted to ask for months.

“I like them,” she took in a deep breath. “A lot actually, I’m glad to have met them.” They began leaving the classroom. “What about the boys? How are they?” 

“Gotta love ‘em. They are all great. Even Oliver, though it's like living with a ghost,” they tried the Arithmancy classroom, but nothing. “I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Well maybe Sterling sometimes.” Zahra laughed at that. 

“Yeah, I get that, he can be a lot sometimes,” she felt so sympathetic.

“Oh hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something!”

“What is it?” 

“I know your sister is on the Quidditch team, and I was wondering if you were going to try out next year?” 

“Yeah.” It was such a straightforward answer. Elijah was impressed by that. “Are you going to try out?” she asked.

“Absolutely not,” he started laughing. “I can barely fly for twenty minutes before getting dizzy, I wouldn’t last half a match!”

“Well if that’s the  _ only  _ thing holding you back…” she started.

“What?” He was curious to know where she was going.

“I’m sure there is a spell or potion to stop motion sickness!” 

“Oh no I’m fine,” he was worried that she was going to try to get him to join the team now.

“Think about it! Our team barely has enough players as it is, plus it’d be fun.”

“Sure.”

He really did think it over, however he decided that he would not try out for Quidditch next year. He was too focused on his school work and after Sterling said he was going to try out, it felt much less appealing. 

They had thoroughly searched all of the classes on the left side of the castle. It was all fruitless. Finally, Zahra noticed the end of a robe draped over a few books on the top shelf of a bookcase in the library. She tapped Elijah on the shoulder, who was looking the opposite direction, and pointed to a small figure atop the bookshelf across the library. It was Sterling.

“How’d he get up there?” She asked.

“Do you think he’s noticed us?” The small boy on top of the shelve was curled up, with his arms around his head. 

“Can he get down?”

“Yeah, how did he get up there? Oh wait, look!” Elijah pointed to the shelf across from the one Sterling was on. 

“That’s Hazel!” Zahra shouted. This prompted a few students who were studying to shush them, as well as got Hazel to notice. Hazel rolled her eyes and inaudibly whispered something to Sterling, which got his attention, and she pointed to Zahra and Elijah. Sterling rolled his eyes as well, and motioned for them to come over.

Zahra and Elijah got in the aisle, looking up at Sterling.

“Hey can you help us down mate?” he looked at Hazel. “We’re stuck.” 

“How’d you get up-” he figured it out mid-sentence. “Oh.” He pulled out his wand.  _ Wingardium Leviosa _ . Elijah wasn’t used to levitating things as heavy as Sterling - usually only books or bags , but he had enough practice and skill to do it without harming him. Zahra did the same, gently lowering Hazel from the bookshelves. 

“You seriously found us first? I was sure that you’d find Fern or Oliver first,” Hazel complained.

“Okay you guys can go back to the common room and wait for us to find Oliver, Forrest, and Fern?” Disappointedly, they left.

They searched two more rooms before having an epiphany. 

“Filch’s office!” Elijah’s eyes lit up. “Of course Forrest would go there!”

They ran down the castle. The door was locked.  _ Alohomora _ , Zahra’s wand produced a small light, and there was a loud click of the door unlocking itself. 

They opened the door and walked behind Filch’s desk, there he was, with Fern crouching right next to him.

“Don’t tell me we are the first you found,” Forrest was almost very disappointed.

“No, we found Sterling and Hazel on top of the bookshelves in the library.” 

“I told them that was a stupid idea!” Forrest laughed.

“You still haven’t found Oliver?” Fern asked.

“No, but there aren’t many places left to check.” Zahra answered.

“Go back to the common room while we look for him.”

“Okay,” Fern went to leave. “Oh wait Elijah!”

Elijah turned around, “What?”

“Er- can I show you something real quick?” Forrest looked at Zahra, obviously wanting her to leave.

“Oh for god's sake!” She grabbed Fern by the wrist and left Filch’s office.

Once the coast was clear, he produced blank parchment from his robe. 

“What is it?” Elijah inquired.

“A blank piece of parchment,” Forrest grabbed his wand and tapped it. Ink started to appear, forming words.

_ Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs _ . 

“It’s a map.” Forrest looked at Elijah. “It’s the Marauder’s Map!” 

“The what? Forrest where’d you get it?” Forrest pointed at the bottom drawer in Filch’s desk. 

“It’s a map of the castle. You can see anyone on it!” He pointed to the two banners that indicated that  _ Zahra Rosewood  _ and  _ Fern Owler  _ were just outside of the office. “Think of what we could do with this!” Forrest looked like he discovered gold.

“Think of what-” Elijah repeated. “We aren’t going to do  _ anything _ with that Forrest!” 

“What? Why?” Forrest really had no reason.

“Because Forrest!” He thought it was obvious. “We’re trying to win the house cup! Having this could get us expelled!” 

“You’re no fun!” Forrest whined.

Suddenly there was a loud shriek, and a loud pop from the trunk in the other corner of the office.

“DID SOMEONE SAY FUN?” The voice was shrill and terrifying. Forrest and Elijah screamed, running to the door. It was now locked, and they started banging on the door, hoping Zahra or Fern would hear them.

A ghoulish figure arose from the trunk. It looked like he was wearing pajamas, and his arms were placed at his hips.

“I SAID,” he took a deep breath in, “DID SOMEONE SAY FUN!?” The two boys had to cover their ears, it was so loud. 

“Who are you?” Forrest trembled.

“WHO AM I?” This upsetted the ghost. “I AM  _ PEEVES _ !” 

They stared at him, still shaking.

“PEEVES THE POLTERGEIST!” 

“I’m s-sorry if we offended you Mr. Peeves, we just-” Forrest tried to apologize but the poltergeist flew forward, causing the boys to squeal in fear. He stuck his tongue out. He seemed less scary, and more silly. He produced two ghostly pies from behind him and stuck them in Forrest and Elijah’s face. 

“MERRY CHRISTMAS” He promptly flew out of the room. Elijah stood with his mouth wide open, shocked, covered in whipped cream and pie filling. 

“Put. The. Map. Back.” Elijah growled. Forrest nodded, equally shocked and scared. “And don’t touch anything else!” Elijah shouted. 

They exited the office, joining Fern and Zahra. The ectoplasm-in-pie-form had dissipated off of their robes, and they now looked normal. 

“What was that all about?” Zahra asked.

“Don’t ask.” Forrest walked straight ahead without paying Zahra much attention. Fern followed. 

“I know where Oliver is,” Elijah whispered to Zahra. “Or at least I think.”

“Lead the way then!” 

It was the same painting that Elijah had swung open only a few weeks earlier with Oliver.

“How’d you find this?”

“Jus’ did,” Elijah shrugged. He entered, quietly, with Zahra right next to him. Again, it was pitch black.  _ Lumos _ . The room looked different this time. The mirror on the other side of the room was covered with a thin white cloth, and there were spare chairs and desks stacked atop each other along the walls. 

“There ‘e is,” Elijah said softly with a grin. Oliver was hiding under a desk. “I didn’t think you’d come here,” he reached out a hand and helped Oliver to his feet. 

* * *

They played two more rounds of  _ hide-and-go-seek _ until sundown, and the majority of the students came back from Hogsmeade. 

“T’was a good day my lads,” Elijah said, as they sat in their rooms, admiring their Christmas presents.

“A fruitful venture indeed,” Forrest added.

“I can’t wait to see what future ventures we may go upon,” Sterling nodded, happy to contribute.

“Until tomorrow arrives,” Oliver said. Forrest’s jaw dropped. That was probably the first time Oliver said something of his own volition. 

Elijah repeated, “Yes, until tomorrow arrives.” And with that the clock struck midnight.

“It’s tomorrow now,” Forrest pointed out.

“Shut up Forrest,” Sterling said. It would have felt too aggressive if he had not immediately given all the boys chocolate frogs. “And they are from my father, so don’t go thinking I like any of you,” Sterling smirked.

Elijah smiled, looking at the  _ Artemisia Lufkin  _ card he got from his chocolate frog. The frog started jumping around on him, leaving traces of chocolate all over his robe. 

_ Still rather be home _ , he thought. 


End file.
